#*commander reeves

So a little family background concerning ethnicities. It’s nothing big for story and just some fun background stuff. Though goes with eventually story telling about the family I may do.

Dad’s side:

African American - Both maternal and paternal. Does have some relatives in Nigeria they are on good terms with, paternal side.

Native American -  Both maternal and paternal sides of the family. (not getting into tribes because I’m still researching that side of my family!) On fairly good terms!

Scottish - Paternal side comes from the Nigerian side. Real fun explaining that one.

French - Both sides. Tiny, tiny bit. But source is from Louisiana family.

Mom’s side

Japanese - Both sides. Ainu from her grandma’s side(which is part of that racial baggage).

Polynesian - New Zealand - Mom’s side. More of the racial baggage. 

Mongolian - Mom’s side once more and more of the racial baggage. 

So, Jynn’s Dad, Johanness, met her mother, Mali, just a couple of years after the US finished their occupation and reconstruction of Japan after WW2. He was a marine. So around 1952 to 1960s. Just a series of coincidental meetings. Him chasing off some locals harassing her, then some of his military buddies giving her a hard time(he broke a few noses), helping her catch an injured stray cat and kittens, and then helped her get back home one stormy day with a lot of groceries. The two hit it off.

Mali’s mother, Masami, did not like it one bit(a lot of racism baggage from her own past as she wasn't purely Japanese and tries to hide that and does’t want her daughter to have a mixed marriage). Her dad, Soma, on the other hand took a liking to Johanness pretty quickly as he was a rather respectful young man and actually put some effort in learning the language and local cultures while he was there on military duty. And had fun playfully picking at his mispronunciations, but did help him get better at learning the language.

Eventually flash forward to Johanness somehow successfully bringing her whole family over to America after he finished his tour over there. Immigration process are fun! Yeah a lot of people in his family weren’t happy he was into some Japanese woman and tried breaking them up constantly. Can say the only positives that came were from his dad’s side of the family and his more open-minded friends. Didn’t let all the negatives hold him back and the two married and had Jynn around 1977 and a few years later her brother, Charles, was born. I think the age gap between two is about 3 to 5 years. Undecided.

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Johanness did his best to respectfully tolerate Mali’s mom, especially when she was being a bitter and racist old woman. Somedays he wonders how he bit his tongue. Mali’s mom did get better, but took the death of her dad(Masami’s husband) for reality to finally hit her and fences were slowly mended with everyone that allowed it.

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Mali picked up woodworking and some other crafty hobbies because of her dad and really ran with it once they were in America. She and her dad opened up a little business, which kinda became a traveling business with the few moves the family had to make due to Johanness’ military career. 

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Both Jynn and Charles have Japanese names as their dad was not going to deny that side of the family and encouraged Mali and Grandpa Soma to teach them a lot about the culture. Eventual reveal will happen in the fic.

Though Johanness would admit he would get a little annoyed when the kids would enter “let’s annoy dad” mode and speak nothing but Japanese for hours and use words and phrases he’s still learning. 

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Johanness actually can hide his southern accents pretty well, mainly due to it was causing some problems in the military(mainly some people were being asses.) But with at home and with family he lets it come out in full force.

Also irritation and stress can bring it out so it is real fun when he dresses down people in the military and uses a lot of southern idioms. Then add in some French Creole and French in general and they are people going bug-eyed.

Jynn and Charles have southern accents that they can “turn off and on”. Charles would get the weirdest of looks since he looks more Japanese than Jynn when he would let it come out in full force.

Mali picked up a slight accent that sometimes slips out.

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Both Johanness and Mali know how to cook. As Johanness likes to joke “My ma would string me up by my hide after tanning it if I dare didn’t know how ta cook, especially if I were ta get married. She swore no child of her’s wouldn’t know how ta cook a decent southern meal and better be ready to share the burdens in marriage.”

Took awhile to get used to some of the dishes Mali and family would make(and took awhile for them to get he doesn’t eat certain foods), but loves them.

And Mali really feel in love with the Cajun dishes he would make, especially gumbo, and would always have him cook them despite him showing her several times how to make them. Just would say “you make them better!” which was very true. And she became a beignet fend. Geez she ate so many during both of her pregnancies.

And they made sure both kids know how to cook and both cook pretty darn well.

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Did make a post earlier about Charles, but the boy went into the Air Force and is a pretty good fighter pilot. Minus the hot dogging that would get him in trouble from time to time. Was allowed to fully cut loose during the invasion. Fun stories to be shared in the future. 

Also learned some welding and has woodworking skills because of mom and grandpa.

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Charles totally picked up on Bradford’s crush on Jynn when they were teens but was being an oddly nice brother and never brought it up or teased him when Jynn was around. He was totally okay with Bradford dating his sis.

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