Do you have any thoughts about the Charlotte family’ dynamics in general? (Or for any au that has caught your eye?)
Random headcanons, incoming! >:Dc
. . .
• There have been deaths in the family. Quite a few of them, even, and the sheer amount of multiple births sort of “hides” it. Most of them were accidental deaths at Linlin’s hands— during a hunger rampage, lifespan taken as a punishment for a crime of some kind, a genuine accident because Linlin is HUGE and often not fully aware of her strength, etc.
• Streusen is Perospero’s father, and no one knows it aside from himself and Linlin. The last thing that horrid little man would want is parental responsibility toward any of Linlin’s brood, and he fully intends to take the secret to his grave. Streusen feels no affection for his son, either— if anything, he’d rather forget about their connection altogether.
• Only the daughters are married off; sons are kept at home as soldiers/otherwise used for Linlin’s crew. The reason for this is that, with girls, Linlin can always tell that any grandbabies are part of her lineage. With boys, their wife could have been knocked up by someone else without her son knowing, it's just too “risky”. Fooling around outside of a Mom-arranged marriage is also forbidden— and that goes double for sons who could lose track of a pregnant fling (thus costing Linlin a grandbaby).
• All of the kids are SEVERELY undersocialized. Nearly the only people they interact with are family or homies (and less often, servants/crew), and it shows. Accustomed to their mother’s tyrannical rule, they all tend to be wary around authority figures and very, very afraid of doing anything “wrong”. The age span and sheer numbers amongst the siblings make their unit feel more like a small town than a normal family, and yet, one-on-one attention (especially from their mother) is disappointingly scarce. Working to “earn” Linlin’s time and favor is the unfortunate norm.
• On a similar note, Perospero has been more of a “parent” to his siblings than Linlin. As the eldest daughter, Compote also filled a substitute parent role quite often (especially in the early years), but she has much less of a neurotic parental streak than him. In part because of the massive age gap between himself and his youngest siblings, Perospero feels almost obligated to look after them. Their mother has never been safe to rely on or go to for help (when she’s even there, as opposed to out on the seas), so naturally, someone has to fill that role… right?
