hi this is an open invitation to absolutely ramble about your paranatural au because i absolutely love it and i love seeing anything you post about it. thanks so much have a great day!!
hi anon! you sent this in january. you have probably given up all hope of my ever answering it, and possibly you have stopped checking this blog entirely. but little do you know that i have been thinking about it constantly and i just have never sat down to answer it
anyway
im taking my free ticket to ramble about the paranatural au and using it on what the fuck im doing with the kids' parents bc what the fuck AM i doing with the kids parents
so here's the thing. The kids all have the same parents in the show. which means I have to invent families for them basically from scratch.
I could theoretically use their canonical mothers, but that would leave me with five or seven or whatever kids who all just have single moms, which is boring. So! Whatever shall I do instead?
Let's start with Viktor.
Viktor is the main character, so he gets to have the canon-inspired family dynamic he gets a single mom. Viktor moved into town extremely recently, as in within the past week, with his mother. I'm thinking she had him when she was pretty young, but still an adult, around 19 or 20. She probably stopped the beginning of a swimming career in order to have him, and has moved back to her hometown because she was offered a job as a swim instructor. She has kept up swimming as a hobby and has a bunch of certifications, but this is the first time in a while she's been able to swim professionally.
Diego has lived in this town for most of his life; I'm thinking that he went to a different elementary school from the other kids, which is how he's slightly the odd one out compared to Allison and Klaus. He probably went to the school with Patch. He only started seeing ghosts last year, and has started pushing away his non-spectral friends because he thinks it's too dangerous for them.
I'm thinking he has two moms. He has his birth mother, and he's the one that gets to have Grace as his mom. Theyre a normal middle aged-ish couple, probably had him in their early 30s, supportive of Diego, but a little worried about his teenage angst phase
I'm thinking that Allison's parents are super rich, well established spectrals who basically run an outpost for the commission out of their mansion. Training facilities and boarding for agents on missions, possibly boarding and information services for new spectral to help them with their new reality too. Probably not out of the goodness of their hearts so much as for new recruits. Since they work with the Commission unlike Izzy's grandfather, they actually provided some of the kids with their tools without it being like, a mind game thing. I think Five lived here for a bit when he was a teenager, and also trained here when he joined the commission, which is why Alison and Klaus are familiar with him. He probably babysat them sometimes
Klaus I'm still not completely sure what I want to do with. I know he and Allison are raised together, and I know I want Klaus' family to be a single dad (there are a lot of moms going on), but I haven't quite decided what to do with Klaus' dad. I'm thinking that he left a cult with baby Klaus in tow and stayed with Allison's parents at the outpost to get back on his feet. but did he become a spectral after he left? Did he leave the cult BECAUSE he became a spectral? Is he still staying at the outpost, or did he move out? Or maybe he died? Or maybe he went missing? I don't know!
OK. Ben next.
There are two. Both of them are named Ben. One of them is probably named Benjamin, and one of them is probably named Benedict or some shit, but I needed all the characters I can get so we cannot have sparrow ben and umbrella ben being the same person. But they both have the same name because I'm not renaming one of them. OK? OK.
Anyway Ben and Ben are twins. umbrella ben died when he was 12, and is now a ghost that Klaus talks to, and sparrow ben is now 17ish. Their mom had them very young when she was still in high school. She lived in the same house as them while she still went to high school, but they were primarily raised by her parents, their grandparents.
Their mom went to college when they were two or three, then grad school when they were six or seven, or maybe seven or eight. She, her parents, and the Bens all consider them to be really her parents kids, though she does visit. she just was so young when she had them, and wanted to be able to live her life, and her parents were willing and able to let her do that.
Then umbrella ben died while she was at school.
She came straight home after that.
For the past five years she's Been Around; she finished her degree either closer to home or by mail, has gotten a job, and is in a weird not-parent but not-not-parent place with sparrow ben. He tries not to resent her and sometimes succeeds, but it's Awkward. And Ben's an asshole. And they all get why. Their mom feels really guilty about basically barely knowing umbrella ben, and is trying her best but it's just. It's awkward. It's all awkward. Nobody wants it to be awkward but it is.
She has been living with her parents and Ben for the past several years, but will probably get her own place once Ben moves out
Luther! Luther is Reginald's kid. Probably Reginald's bio kid, probably also Abigail's. Reginald is the other "giant spectral mansion" guy, except he hates the commission because he thinks spirits are unstable and unreliable, and relying on their powers is weak. Reginald keeps Luther away from the commission, the club, and Five, so luther only joined the club once he became a medium, or to rebel against his dad.
Terminology reminder: mediums are directly possessed by spirits, whereas most spectral can see ghosts, and use objects possessed by ghosts as tools, but are not possessed by them. "possession" basically means the spirit is in a resting state while it feeds off of surrounding spectral energy to heal itself; a spectral will get fed on whether they are using a possessed tool or are possessed directly, so the main difference is the fact that as a spirit heals, it makes whatever is is possessing look more and more like itself. which is how we end up with monkey luther eventually. sorry luther!
Anyway, luther is the only medium out of the kids. Since his dad does not support the use of tools, he is doing his absolute best to make sure Reginald never finds out that Luther is a medium. unfortunately, there is kind of a ticking clock on that one. if luther is lucky, itll take a while before its noticeable!
and OK. so. Five. hear me out.
Five is also Reginald's kid.
Five and Luther are brothers. Five is way older, and was extremely rebellious and fought with reginald basically luther's entire childhood. Once luther was born, abigail and reginald kinda gave up on five, and put all of their eggs (their nefarious, to-be-determined eggs) (i have no idea what their goal is other than "evil" and "needs children with superpowers") in luther's basket. at some point, five finally got sick of reginald and left. and left luther behind. (thats how luther feels, anyway). at some point, five joined the commission, and at some later point, became a teacher at a middle school. and now luther is in his class.
(sidenote, i am ALSO considering the idea that five is adopted and luther is not, for maximum "you're my brother but im not sure you feel that way back, and also you left, and i have no idea if you even CARE". i still havent decided. bc making five adopted with this specific conflict does feel like it could come across as "adopted siblings arent real siblings")
(also, five does care, hes just.... dealing with stuff)
