The Crimson Chronicles

[ooc]

I saw this and went feral

I've been reserved, but I'm gonna come out and say it. Carmine is a very multifaceted character just like her brother, and similarly to him, many people like to pick and choose what they evaluate to simplify her into something either hyper-villified or super one note 'she didn't mean it, and nothing is her fault'. The truth of the matter is that the Teal Mask is a messy situation and trying to figure out who is at fault is beside the point cuz blaming Carmine or Kieran or the player or anything else ruins the nuance and the complexity.

A lot of Carmine's mischaracterization comes from the fact that all of her dialogue is not directly indicative of her character and often isn't exactly one to one how she feels about something. Carmine is a character that struggles a LOT with conveying/receiving tone and is very prone to misunderstanding AND being misunderstood.

Her relationship with Kieran is by no means perfect and way more realistically messy than most fictional sibling portrayals. Many sibling relationships, ESPECIALLY the ones between a sister and brother, have very harsh rivalries, especially at certain age differences. There is constant competition since they're just old enough to want the same things, but far enough apart to claim seniority. I should also mention that throwing neurodivergence into the mix is even MORE volatile, especially the kind that we're working with when it comes to the Kitakami siblings.

It would not surprise me at all if Carmine was also bullied by her peers and it just presented differently. Carmine herself is socially oblivious and has a lot of pride so it seems like snide comments would roll of her back- but look at the things that Carmine cares about. Beauty, power, coolness. She's fiercely loyal to Mossui Town and Kieran was canonically bullied for coming from 'the boonies'. It's not far to venture that Carmine herself suffered the same treatment and her hostility towards outsiders in her hometown stems from that.

Carmine also DOES think highly of Kieran. She thinks he is a skilled trainer and also knows that he has thick skin because they grew up together. They also grew up together without their parents or other kids significantly in the picture. Even with their grandparents, this leads to a dynamic where Carmine and Kieran have each other first and foremost. They share blood and that doesn't count for nothing, and even further they share traits by nature because of it. Both siblings have a deep-set jealous streak and sense of pride, one that isn't immediately relatable to everyone and can even isolate them from other people, but not necessarily from each other. She looks out for his best interest, though it doesn't always come off right.

Carmine isn't self-aware majority of the time. When she is rude, it's not always intentional and her expression of her thoughts or emotions isn't always accurate because Carmine feels strong, complicated things. It's a struggle to verbose them correctly and she seems not to have been taught how to regulate or voice her emotions accurately, instead expressing herself through HER means instead of everyone else's. When Carmine defends Kieran's mask before the festival, that is an expression of her love. When she seeks out the player despite her distaste specifically on Kieran's behalf, that is an expression of her love. Carmine's actions are normally very well-intentioned but don't always come out that way. As a neurodivergent person myself, I completely understand this.

When she lies to Kieran about the ogre, she is attempting to preserve his friendship with the player and his bond with her, and it's because she KNOWS Kieran will be jealous. Was it wrong to do that? Totally! Was she right down the line. Also yes. Carmine does take full responsibility in being Kieran's sister and takes that role very seriously. Turning Kieran over to the player like she did in the beginning is actually a big sign of maturity from Carmine we don't see super often. She swallows her jealousy and pride, risking Kieran finding some outsider cooler than her, because she wants him to have friends outside of her despite being naturally possessive.

Carmine has a very strong sense of justice and this twists when applied to her relationship with Kieran. The two bicker a lot and have a strong leader-follower dynamic, with Carmine sometimes bullying Kieran into listening to her. Carmine is normally not taken seriously outside of Kieran and feels the need to berate people into respecting her. It's not right, but it's how she feels. It's not healthy but it's also not completely abnormal for siblings to be like this. My own siblings are like this and as a family unit we have all fought for dominance, not always in savory, healthy ways. I'm not saying she's right- I'm saying she's a teenage girl that deals with things in messy ways because she's a teenage girl. Kieran often gets the teenager pass (granted, he is younger.) but I also see Drayton getting the teenage pass when he's of comparable or older age than Carmine.

Drayton is also a hot topic with Carmine. Setting aside my own hcs, their objective relationship is antagonistic both ways. Drayton is of course not the devil Carmine treats him as, but it's very well established that Carmine struggles a) to read people and b) to warm up to people. It doesn't help that Drayton goes out of his way to irritate and antagonize her. It's not extreme of course, but Carmine is distrusting, and angers easily which Drayton is amused by. There is NOTHING more annoying than getting mad at something and somebody laughs in your face. Especially from a neurodiverse and bullied perspective- what Drayton is doing is NOT bullying- but Carmine again likely grew up bullied and made fun of, specifically FOR her temper. Growing up, older boys would deliberately irritate me to the point of a meltdown because they thought it was funny to watch me freak out. Things like that are stressful and also SUPER impact emotional regulation in a person. And while Carmine is aggressive, she senses a scheme from Drayton against her brother. She is already insanely loyal to Kieran and after her shortcomings in the Teal Mask she's DEFINITELY going to be hypersensitive about not making Kieran any worse. Drayton being cryptic and treating it all so lightly is bound to get on her nerves, and he already violates her sense of justice with his behavior. Don't get me wrong, I love Drayton, but he also has the emotional intelligence to know better to act in certain ways that he does. What Carmine is doing is essentially a cat puffing up and swiping at a perceived threat, and instead of calming the cat down, Drayton agitates it further to tease it. Carmine, while aggressive with her words, is actually surprisingly tame and restrained. It's obvious to me at least that she is trying to regulate herself and is not nearly aggressive as she could be. Carmine to me in this situation is barking but not biting- she's looking out for the safety of everyone around her, but she can't make a sound enough judgement of his intention to actually bite so she isn't going to. Carmine doesn't genuinely want to hurt Drayton. She has a temper, especially a verbal one, that he pokes fun at and thus she has a negative association with him.

I guess I'm just reallllly tired of people acting like Carmine and Kieran are either completely innocent, erasing the complicated writing behind their actions, or holding them to an unfair moral standard since it's pretty obvious that these kids should have been seeing a behavioral therapist and had more intervention growing up. (Behavioral therapy is not a desperate need but also I firmly believe that most kids should see therapists, even if they're having troubles on this medium a scale. Carmine and Kieran aren't nonfunctional, but they also weren't taught strategies to self-regulate which seeing a therapist would've helped with growing up).