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Nov 24

That moment when I realize how far I am from releasing the sketchy business strips featuring Louise and her brother Steve, so I'll just talk about them for a second.

Steve is a very confident, talkative person. He doesn't let anybody get him down, he acts weird on purpose and doesn't even care if people judge him for it. On the other hand, his little sister Louise is pretty shy and reserved, so when their neighbor Chili comments that he needs to find live models for his (not yet girlfriend) Texas to use to help her practice her art, Steve volunteers both him and his sister hoping it will help her gain some confidence. whether that works out remains to be seen.

None of the sibling pairs have really been introduced yet in my current comic, but they're all... bad or distant. One is extremely sexist and talks down to their sibling a lot, the other is so jealous of his sibling. He SA's his sister's girlfriend to spite said sister and hurt her via her lover. The best sibling relationship is distant and they don't really talk, but it's clear they still care a bit. Not enough to stay in eachother's lives at the end, though.
In my robot comic the sibling dynamic is toxic as well. To the point that the brother removes the sisters legs and keeps her as a prisoner, after killing her lover of course. Dude torments her until she attempts suicide, then his actions get them both killed.
Even the novel I haven't worked on for months about 4 siblings is just... miserable. The eldest beat them, the eldest sister ran away and doesn't speak to any of them, the two younger ones run away together and I guess they're fine... but the youngest sibling is just an emotional punching bag and isn't bothered with unless the older of the two is single (not in any sort of inappropriate way, he'd just rather spend time with lovers than family.)

So I guess I write siblings according to that pesky evil stereotype. But I fully admit that would probably stem from my less than great experience with my sibling. He's younger, the favorite, and he could get away with anything. Including beating me when the teen years were reached without so much as scolding, and should I "tattle" or fight back I'd just incure my mother's wrath too; for the "mature" thing was to shut up and take it, according to her. He threw himself down the stairs, blamed my friend in attempt to isolate me, which would have worked if we didnt have an adult visiting that called him out for lying when mom began screaming at me. He held my cat against the wall by the neck... and now he's homeless, addicted, and only comes by when he wants money or for me to hide stolen goods (I never help him).

It's just hard to write a good sibling dynamic when my own most prominate memory of my sibling is holding my bedroom door closed with all my strength, feeling it buckle and bend each time he tackled it from the other side. Screaming at me for... something. I don't recall what he said, probably something about hurting him when I peeled his fingers off my cat's throat. I hadn't reacted or done anything to his abuse in months at that point so it must have been shocking to have me finally fight back again. Tears running down my face as I stare on at my poor cat coughing and trying to catch his breath by my feet, knowing I had to keep that door closed not for me-- I didn't care about me anymore-- but for him.

Write what ya know, baby. But hey, at least the "distant and not in their sibling's life much, if at all" wasn't a trope on your list so I've only sinned with my abundance of evil ones.

I’m gonna be okay. I’m gonna be okay.

Where did that come from?

Oh.

I remember…

There haven’t always been only…

…These horrifying voices…

But others-

When Papi picked me up off the sidewalk after I’d tripped and skinned my knee and the blood flowed around the dirt and stones embedded in my leg - I thought nothing could ever hurt like-

You’ll be okay. You’ll be okay…

When Andrew sat beside me on the sidewalk, because I’d forgotten my key, the doors were locked, and Mom was who knows where. We had to wait for Tia Maria to bring us the spare key - let us inside, so we could go to sleep - and I cried - because I’d failed him-

We’re going to be okay…

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but I love writing sibling dynamics! @Leyelle I also love seeing siblings who are great friends it seems yours are great supports, but I have some siblings who don’t get along at all either. But back to siblings who are good friends, I have Mia and Lino (short for Marcelino), although they’re very jokester with each other. Mia is just worrying everyone here though, but I hope her goblin-ish energy comes through :sob:


Also as a side note, their uncle is their caretaker. We love Tío Ed in this house :sparkles::sparkles: He cares about them so much, but taking care of teenagers is kind of freaking him out lol.

@llobucervallince lol :joy: I write siblings on either side of that sibling spectrum too. I’m lucky enough irl me and my bro are more like the first part, we’re besties.

Yeah I love writing siblings who are good friends and love each other in my stories. i watch a whole show about finding family and the sibling duos are usually my faves XD. But not all my sibling characters get along. Sometimes they're dysfunctional and still care but a few really just don't get along. I think I usually write a range when it comes to most dynamics, couples, parent-child etc.

siblings who are a team are just one of my faves, just like bff dynamic duos.

Why are Mia and Lino raised by their uncle? Were their parents abducted by aliens?!!!

Oh I get that, I also write really dysfunctional siblings and families too, but I do like also showing that sometimes they still care about each other. I also like writing the different variations that come with making siblings and family dynamics, so it’s probably why I have a billion stories because it seems there’s almost an infinite way to approach the writing!

But yes bff siblings for the win :sparkles: And NO lmao their parents were not abducted by aliens :joy: That thing that happened to Sabah’s girlfriend is not a common occurrence lol. BUT they did disappear under mysterious circumstances, so they’re trying to uncover that mystery.

So the story is a mystery or is that a subplot?

Yeah sometimes dysfunctional characters still love each other and I have a billion stories too, probably because I live writing character dynamics and relationships so much so I getcha XD.

My most dysfunctional but still love each other siblings RN are Riley and Leia. Leia is trying to keep anyone from finding out her little brother is bulimic because she knows people will treat him badly if they do, but she only knows tough love unfortunately because of how they were raised. Still her brother matters more than anything her and their relationship is literally what the whole story is about.

The story is like a mystery! They find a book their parents left them a book about unlocking psychic abilities, and Lino really just think it’s wishful thinking, he thinks their parents were just wacky pseudo-science fanatics, but Mia is way more willing to believe it 100% and try to travel through her own dreams. But they both miss their parents, they’ve been missing for 5 years :<

Oh no poor Riley :frowning: that’s real though, I feel eating disorders are something a lot of people struggle with. I hope it ends out well for both of them though, in the story. Or at least ends on the story with them on something like the direction of healing :sob:

It definitely does end with progression toward recovery, don't worry. The story is about her process trying to help him recover, it's ebb and flow but they do move forward.

this is me coming back and realizing I forgot to ask if this story is in the same world as Kosta's story, since you mentioned Kosta finding a world between sleeping and waking

lol ur good! And no, they are in separate stories. A lot of my themes surround dreams though and worlds in between, I love working with surreal settings so I think I tend to have them a focus in lot of my stories. I don’t keep a dream diary for nothing! I got stories for years and years :sparkles:

And here I thought I'd cracked the code! But I getcha, I like using dreams a lot in my stories too, though I used to use them more than I do now. Now they're usually for symbolism, but I have a few stories that are inspired by my irl dreams too XD.

Ah yeah sorry all my stories are dream-like :sob: I like using them for symbolism too, but I also mix in a supernatural element to think of them in the stories as a more tangible hidden world.

Some of mine are a bit like that too. I have stories where people use dreams to see the future, or there are people who use dreams to see alternate versions of the world and stuff. It's a little complicated to explain outside of context. But I have a fantasy novel i still intend to make where dreams are a HUGE portion of the plot, though neither of the MCs have direct ties to the special dreams

Oh that sounds fun! Dream oracle stuff can be really trippy, I think I only have one character like that and she’s not a main character either. Most of the time my characters are just traveling through dreams and see only in their direct perspective, they won’t get any hints on what their futures hold. But I guess some of the plot lets the reader know what direction they might head :sob:

More sibling sweetness is coming soon in the upcoming Anniversary chapter of "Damsel in the Red Dress." 5 year old Andrew is SOOOOO cute.

Two of my characters are siblings--the brother, Bard is the main character, but his younger sister Cassandra also plays an important part in the novel. They get along well and don't fight, which some people might find unrealistic, but I'm using the example of my brother and me.

Every set of siblings has different dynamics. Some siblings don't fight very often. Me and my older brother don't