Grandparents
(Les/ Callan)
(Les/ Callan)
There was a time in Les’ life where the world made sense.
Now, he wouldn’t consider himself a complicated man, or even a very disagreeable one. If you asked him, he’d say he believed in simple, honest values and common sense. Things that made people decent and didn’t take much to understand.
At one time, people understood how to respect the elders who put a roof over their head. They understood how to provide for those they were responsible for. How to defend their homes and mind their own business like any good neighbor would. Les wasn’t a difficult man - respect yours and he’ll respect his, and nobody would have trouble.
It used to be that people understood these sorts of ideas. At one time, West Nova had been filled with good, decent folk with sensible heads on their shoulders. Even if he didn’t get along with some of them - because businessmen never did trust each other no matter how chummy they got - they could all still agree on what mattered in society.
What happened?
He’s asked himself that question too many times. The younger generation was so different nowadays that he hardly recognized them when he compared them to his own youth. Soft, he was inclined to think; growing up in prosperity could do that to a person. He’d seen it plenty. Put ideas in their heads that really ought not to be there.
Had their elders been more firm, maybe things would still make sense in the world. Had these kids actually been taught, they wouldn’t be getting caught up in meaningless details and chasing crazy, impossible dreams.
…
Les swipes the match in his hand across the balustrade. It lights clean and he puts the flame to the tobacco in his pipe before the frigid wind can snuff it out.
The drag he takes from his pipe is a relieved one. He savors the sensation of the smoke as it enters his lungs, soaking in the taste of tobacco that hits his tongue. It’s a bitter flavor, less than palatable to many, but Les has been doing this for a long time and he’s acquired a taste for it.
Ellie never liked when he smoked on her property. If her parents were going to visit for the holidays, they had to respect the people that lived there, she’d huffed. No smoking, not inside the house and certainly not around her husband. Well, in Les’ opinion, he’s neither inside nor within thirty feet of the man, so he can smoke as much as he wants.
She ought to be grateful, really. He’d raised and taught her the same way his father had reared him, and she hadn’t the respect to even acknowledge what he offered. No, she wouldn’t take over either of her parents’ work. No, she wouldn’t be a doctor. No, she wouldn’t live city-side where she had plenty of resources, or even live on the coast where her ancestors hailed from.
All of that, he would’ve been willing to at least tolerate. Ellie had her father’s spirit, and of that he was proud.
But refusing all of her potential suitors just to go and get married to that man…
Les sighs. Smoke billows from his mouth in a great, heavy cloud, and he watches it disperse through the air without really seeing it.
NOVA, he wishes this holiday would end already.
“Les.”
He twitches.
He doesn’t have to look back behind him to see who it is. Indeed, he doesn’t. He knows who it is, and safe to say he’d half been expecting her. He wonders, though, how he managed to miss the sound of her arrival.
Footsteps sound quietly across the wood panels of the porch as she steps up gingerly to take her place at his side. There’s a certain kind of grace to it, something he’d never been able to replicate. She always had that way about her, ever the two-faced, diplomatic sort.
“Certainly a scene you put on inside,” She says as she places her hand beside his on the balustrade. “Quite a few questions they had about that.”
The tone of her voice is difficult to discern to most people. Carefully polite, endlessly eloquent and restrained, every part of her speech is meant to convey propriety and diplomacy in its most fanciful, drawn out forms. She’d always had that way about her; butter people up for leverage, never let them know what the real motive was. Wasn’t exactly his method, but her business boomed just as well as his own did.
But Les knew Callan plenty better than anyone else. And his wife is not happy.
He grunts.
Callan adjusts herself with a subtle shift of her feet, getting herself comfortable. She’s probably cold, he thinks, and she really ought to be inside. The weather here is abysmal during Squidmas and the last thing he needs is his wife catching a fever on top of everything else.
“You should be inside,” He mutters.
“Hm,” Callan ponders.
Between them, the silence stretches for an impossibly long time. It feels heavy, pulled tight and frayed like a rope worn thin. Neither of them speak, both of them instead directing their gazes outward into the expanse of nature that surrounds their daughter’s home. Just ahead, he can see the woods of Kalmari Forest, a thicket of trees that stretch on in the distance right off the periphery of the property. Beyond that, he knows, is the road leading out of town. It feels like it takes everything in him not to leave now that his wife is here.
A hand grazes his own. It’s soft, strange against his calloused worn skin and cold from the chill in the air. He savors the touch.
Callan squeezes his hand tight. “Les…” She murmurs. “We can’t do this again. Please.”
He says nothing.
“I know it was quite a…surprise…what they did,” Callan breathes, almost too quiet to hear. “Perhaps it could have been planned better. But please - they had good intentions. You know that. They want us to be there for them, in their lives.”
He hears Callan exhale weakly.
“This is a second chance for us, is it not? A chance to right our wrongs and make up for our past mistakes. After everything that’s happened, does that not make you happy?”
Les bites the lip of his tobacco pipe so hard he’s surprised it doesn’t snap.
Happy? Happy?
Is that how she wants him to feel? Is that how she wants him to act? After everything that’s happened?
There was a time when the world made sense. There was a time when a child respected her elders and her position in life and a man didn’t have to worry about the choices of a spirited, rebellious daughter who had no sense or appreciation for what she had.
There was a time when the world made sense, and a man didn’t have to deal with his daughter’s blatant disrespect, nor her refusal to listen to any of his advice, nor her refusal to do anything that would’ve been for her benefit.
There was a time when the world made sense - and a man didn’t have to visit his wayward, rebellious daughter for the holidays just to find that daughter knocked up and eight months pregnant with an outsider’s child.
It’s still burnt into his mind. He can’t get it out. He’s tried. Coming in, as they did every year. Callan with her dollish pleasantries to that winged beast of a man that Ellie called a husband. Ellie, absent, just for her husband to beam - we have a really special Squidmas surprise for you, wait here - and run off before anyone could say a word.
And then seeing the two of them, walking out of the kitchen together, pleased as punch with themselves and all he could see was the swell of his daughter’s abdomen and the way she looked so proud of it. As if there were anything to be proud of.
And Callan wanted him to be happy?
Les snorts. Perhaps Ellie took more after her mother than he thought.
Callan’s hand squeezes his own with enough force that it almost hurts.
“I don’t understand,” She utters, low and barbed. “He saved us, Les. You were beginning to get along with him so well, were you not? Do not tell me otherwise. What happened?”
It’s a good question. That he growls and says nothing is because, honestly, he has no answer for her.
Les isn’t a difficult man. He’s not a disagreeable one either. He holds a very simple set of principles that even the most uneducated would understand. Doing your duty, providing for those you’re responsible for, and working for what you have are all core tenets of West Novan culture.
That man goes against everything that makes West Nova what it is, but at one point Les had to give credit where credit was due. Not just anyone can risk their lives saving a bunch of people from a bloody active volcano during a cruise vacation and just barely manage to not die doing it. He remembered how the man had looked after the fact - sweaty and limp on death’s door.
At one time, he could’ve figured Ellie’s husband to be one of the good ones. Maybe some part of Les’ teachings had, in fact, actually had some bearing in her life decisions, even if just by a thread. Their house had been purchased by her husband largely on his own dime, despite that Ellie probably made double what he did, and everything Les heard of the man was work of some kind.
He was a provider who fought to make ends meet and always took responsibility. That, Les could respect if literally nothing else. Had Ellie’s husband been born and bred properly on West Nova, he thinks they’d have got on swimmingly.
What happened?
Les can’t answer that.
Callan doesn’t expect him to, either. Instead, she sighs, leaning heavily against the balustrade in a manner that far betrays her usual propriety. “You can’t change things, Les.” She murmurs. “He is not one of the suitors you picked, but he is who she chose. He loves her and he provides for her. That should be enough.”
“She should have done better,” He says. A cloud of smoke billows from his mouth with the proclamation, a drag of tobacco held in a little too long. “I taught her better than this. We taught her better than this.”
“I know that. And while we perhaps may not ever understand her choices, we must accept them if we wish to stay in her life. Bate is a good man. He works hard, does he not? He would treat his family well.”
“And now you accept him so easily. At one time you’d never have stood for such a thing.”
“He has made me a grandmother, and he has saved our lives and treats our daughter far better than we have. Is accepting him such a terrible thing?”
She knows the answer he’d have for that. He deigns not to respond.
The quiet hovers over them both. They both stare out into the open scenery, neither one looking at the other.
Les understands Callan’s grievance. It’s about more than just respect for the man and what he provides. They had both disapproved of Ellie’s choices for a long time, and their daughter’s threat to cut contact had shaken her mother to the core. Respect the man she married, Ellie had demanded, or get out.
And now Ellie is pregnant. And Les…has to respect that.
“You are asking a lot of me,” He murmurs, finally.
“I know,” Callan soothes. Her thumb grazes the back of his hand, smoothing over one of his many scars. “It is a lot to ask, to stay in their lives. But think, Les. Grandchildren! We are going to be grandparents. And they want us to be there for them, is that not exciti–”
Les jerks.
For the first time since his wife’s arrival, he turns his head to look at her. She’s exuberant, of course, positively glowing with excitement, but his attention is somewhere else.
“Grandchildren?” He says. Callan nods, the stars practically shining in her eyes/
“You left before she could make the announcement,” She replies eagerly, “Estella’s having twins! Isn’t that exciting? A little Squishy girl and a boy that looks like his father. Oh, I certainly can’t wait…!”
Les considers this as his wife basks in her jubilant emotions. “A Squishy girl? Well, they did one thing right at least.”
“They are both our grandchildren, Les, and they will both be loved if I have anything to say about it.”
Callan tugs at his hand resting on the balustrade. Where she had been holding it all this time, now she pulls gently to get her husband to face her full on, and Les goes along with it without resistance. She looks at him, and he watches as she smiles with the eddies of so many emotions - pride and exuberance, the happiness of a growing family.
“Whether or not you choose to remain in their lives… That is up to you,” She murmurs. “But you have a chance to make things right, dear. To make things better than they were. For your daughter, and for your grandchildren. All of them.”
Quietly, he allows the words to soak in. For a few long minutes, he doesn’t say a thing, turning them over in his head.
Eventually, finally, Les asks, “What are their names?”
“Emma and Kadren. Perfect names for perfect grandchildren, yes?”
Les thinks.
There was a time in Les’ life when the world made sense. Back then, people had decent heads on their shoulders. They knew what it meant to be responsible, respectful, and hard-working. Les had been proud to be among them, living on a planet he loved.
A chance to make things right…
“Emma…”
He tests the name on his tongue. For the first time that day, a smile pulls unbidden at the corner of his mouth.
Callan squeezes his hand and beams. “Together. For them.”
Slowly, Les nods.
“...For them.”
Now, he wouldn’t consider himself a complicated man, or even a very disagreeable one. If you asked him, he’d say he believed in simple, honest values and common sense. Things that made people decent and didn’t take much to understand.
At one time, people understood how to respect the elders who put a roof over their head. They understood how to provide for those they were responsible for. How to defend their homes and mind their own business like any good neighbor would. Les wasn’t a difficult man - respect yours and he’ll respect his, and nobody would have trouble.
It used to be that people understood these sorts of ideas. At one time, West Nova had been filled with good, decent folk with sensible heads on their shoulders. Even if he didn’t get along with some of them - because businessmen never did trust each other no matter how chummy they got - they could all still agree on what mattered in society.
What happened?
He’s asked himself that question too many times. The younger generation was so different nowadays that he hardly recognized them when he compared them to his own youth. Soft, he was inclined to think; growing up in prosperity could do that to a person. He’d seen it plenty. Put ideas in their heads that really ought not to be there.
Had their elders been more firm, maybe things would still make sense in the world. Had these kids actually been taught, they wouldn’t be getting caught up in meaningless details and chasing crazy, impossible dreams.
…
Les swipes the match in his hand across the balustrade. It lights clean and he puts the flame to the tobacco in his pipe before the frigid wind can snuff it out.
The drag he takes from his pipe is a relieved one. He savors the sensation of the smoke as it enters his lungs, soaking in the taste of tobacco that hits his tongue. It’s a bitter flavor, less than palatable to many, but Les has been doing this for a long time and he’s acquired a taste for it.
Ellie never liked when he smoked on her property. If her parents were going to visit for the holidays, they had to respect the people that lived there, she’d huffed. No smoking, not inside the house and certainly not around her husband. Well, in Les’ opinion, he’s neither inside nor within thirty feet of the man, so he can smoke as much as he wants.
She ought to be grateful, really. He’d raised and taught her the same way his father had reared him, and she hadn’t the respect to even acknowledge what he offered. No, she wouldn’t take over either of her parents’ work. No, she wouldn’t be a doctor. No, she wouldn’t live city-side where she had plenty of resources, or even live on the coast where her ancestors hailed from.
All of that, he would’ve been willing to at least tolerate. Ellie had her father’s spirit, and of that he was proud.
But refusing all of her potential suitors just to go and get married to that man…
Les sighs. Smoke billows from his mouth in a great, heavy cloud, and he watches it disperse through the air without really seeing it.
NOVA, he wishes this holiday would end already.
“Les.”
He twitches.
He doesn’t have to look back behind him to see who it is. Indeed, he doesn’t. He knows who it is, and safe to say he’d half been expecting her. He wonders, though, how he managed to miss the sound of her arrival.
Footsteps sound quietly across the wood panels of the porch as she steps up gingerly to take her place at his side. There’s a certain kind of grace to it, something he’d never been able to replicate. She always had that way about her, ever the two-faced, diplomatic sort.
“Certainly a scene you put on inside,” She says as she places her hand beside his on the balustrade. “Quite a few questions they had about that.”
The tone of her voice is difficult to discern to most people. Carefully polite, endlessly eloquent and restrained, every part of her speech is meant to convey propriety and diplomacy in its most fanciful, drawn out forms. She’d always had that way about her; butter people up for leverage, never let them know what the real motive was. Wasn’t exactly his method, but her business boomed just as well as his own did.
But Les knew Callan plenty better than anyone else. And his wife is not happy.
He grunts.
Callan adjusts herself with a subtle shift of her feet, getting herself comfortable. She’s probably cold, he thinks, and she really ought to be inside. The weather here is abysmal during Squidmas and the last thing he needs is his wife catching a fever on top of everything else.
“You should be inside,” He mutters.
“Hm,” Callan ponders.
Between them, the silence stretches for an impossibly long time. It feels heavy, pulled tight and frayed like a rope worn thin. Neither of them speak, both of them instead directing their gazes outward into the expanse of nature that surrounds their daughter’s home. Just ahead, he can see the woods of Kalmari Forest, a thicket of trees that stretch on in the distance right off the periphery of the property. Beyond that, he knows, is the road leading out of town. It feels like it takes everything in him not to leave now that his wife is here.
A hand grazes his own. It’s soft, strange against his calloused worn skin and cold from the chill in the air. He savors the touch.
Callan squeezes his hand tight. “Les…” She murmurs. “We can’t do this again. Please.”
He says nothing.
“I know it was quite a…surprise…what they did,” Callan breathes, almost too quiet to hear. “Perhaps it could have been planned better. But please - they had good intentions. You know that. They want us to be there for them, in their lives.”
He hears Callan exhale weakly.
“This is a second chance for us, is it not? A chance to right our wrongs and make up for our past mistakes. After everything that’s happened, does that not make you happy?”
Les bites the lip of his tobacco pipe so hard he’s surprised it doesn’t snap.
Happy? Happy?
Is that how she wants him to feel? Is that how she wants him to act? After everything that’s happened?
There was a time when the world made sense. There was a time when a child respected her elders and her position in life and a man didn’t have to worry about the choices of a spirited, rebellious daughter who had no sense or appreciation for what she had.
There was a time when the world made sense, and a man didn’t have to deal with his daughter’s blatant disrespect, nor her refusal to listen to any of his advice, nor her refusal to do anything that would’ve been for her benefit.
There was a time when the world made sense - and a man didn’t have to visit his wayward, rebellious daughter for the holidays just to find that daughter knocked up and eight months pregnant with an outsider’s child.
It’s still burnt into his mind. He can’t get it out. He’s tried. Coming in, as they did every year. Callan with her dollish pleasantries to that winged beast of a man that Ellie called a husband. Ellie, absent, just for her husband to beam - we have a really special Squidmas surprise for you, wait here - and run off before anyone could say a word.
And then seeing the two of them, walking out of the kitchen together, pleased as punch with themselves and all he could see was the swell of his daughter’s abdomen and the way she looked so proud of it. As if there were anything to be proud of.
And Callan wanted him to be happy?
Les snorts. Perhaps Ellie took more after her mother than he thought.
Callan’s hand squeezes his own with enough force that it almost hurts.
“I don’t understand,” She utters, low and barbed. “He saved us, Les. You were beginning to get along with him so well, were you not? Do not tell me otherwise. What happened?”
It’s a good question. That he growls and says nothing is because, honestly, he has no answer for her.
Les isn’t a difficult man. He’s not a disagreeable one either. He holds a very simple set of principles that even the most uneducated would understand. Doing your duty, providing for those you’re responsible for, and working for what you have are all core tenets of West Novan culture.
That man goes against everything that makes West Nova what it is, but at one point Les had to give credit where credit was due. Not just anyone can risk their lives saving a bunch of people from a bloody active volcano during a cruise vacation and just barely manage to not die doing it. He remembered how the man had looked after the fact - sweaty and limp on death’s door.
At one time, he could’ve figured Ellie’s husband to be one of the good ones. Maybe some part of Les’ teachings had, in fact, actually had some bearing in her life decisions, even if just by a thread. Their house had been purchased by her husband largely on his own dime, despite that Ellie probably made double what he did, and everything Les heard of the man was work of some kind.
He was a provider who fought to make ends meet and always took responsibility. That, Les could respect if literally nothing else. Had Ellie’s husband been born and bred properly on West Nova, he thinks they’d have got on swimmingly.
What happened?
Les can’t answer that.
Callan doesn’t expect him to, either. Instead, she sighs, leaning heavily against the balustrade in a manner that far betrays her usual propriety. “You can’t change things, Les.” She murmurs. “He is not one of the suitors you picked, but he is who she chose. He loves her and he provides for her. That should be enough.”
“She should have done better,” He says. A cloud of smoke billows from his mouth with the proclamation, a drag of tobacco held in a little too long. “I taught her better than this. We taught her better than this.”
“I know that. And while we perhaps may not ever understand her choices, we must accept them if we wish to stay in her life. Bate is a good man. He works hard, does he not? He would treat his family well.”
“And now you accept him so easily. At one time you’d never have stood for such a thing.”
“He has made me a grandmother, and he has saved our lives and treats our daughter far better than we have. Is accepting him such a terrible thing?”
She knows the answer he’d have for that. He deigns not to respond.
The quiet hovers over them both. They both stare out into the open scenery, neither one looking at the other.
Les understands Callan’s grievance. It’s about more than just respect for the man and what he provides. They had both disapproved of Ellie’s choices for a long time, and their daughter’s threat to cut contact had shaken her mother to the core. Respect the man she married, Ellie had demanded, or get out.
And now Ellie is pregnant. And Les…has to respect that.
“You are asking a lot of me,” He murmurs, finally.
“I know,” Callan soothes. Her thumb grazes the back of his hand, smoothing over one of his many scars. “It is a lot to ask, to stay in their lives. But think, Les. Grandchildren! We are going to be grandparents. And they want us to be there for them, is that not exciti–”
Les jerks.
For the first time since his wife’s arrival, he turns his head to look at her. She’s exuberant, of course, positively glowing with excitement, but his attention is somewhere else.
“Grandchildren?” He says. Callan nods, the stars practically shining in her eyes/
“You left before she could make the announcement,” She replies eagerly, “Estella’s having twins! Isn’t that exciting? A little Squishy girl and a boy that looks like his father. Oh, I certainly can’t wait…!”
Les considers this as his wife basks in her jubilant emotions. “A Squishy girl? Well, they did one thing right at least.”
“They are both our grandchildren, Les, and they will both be loved if I have anything to say about it.”
Callan tugs at his hand resting on the balustrade. Where she had been holding it all this time, now she pulls gently to get her husband to face her full on, and Les goes along with it without resistance. She looks at him, and he watches as she smiles with the eddies of so many emotions - pride and exuberance, the happiness of a growing family.
“Whether or not you choose to remain in their lives… That is up to you,” She murmurs. “But you have a chance to make things right, dear. To make things better than they were. For your daughter, and for your grandchildren. All of them.”
Quietly, he allows the words to soak in. For a few long minutes, he doesn’t say a thing, turning them over in his head.
Eventually, finally, Les asks, “What are their names?”
“Emma and Kadren. Perfect names for perfect grandchildren, yes?”
Les thinks.
There was a time in Les’ life when the world made sense. Back then, people had decent heads on their shoulders. They knew what it meant to be responsible, respectful, and hard-working. Les had been proud to be among them, living on a planet he loved.
A chance to make things right…
“Emma…”
He tests the name on his tongue. For the first time that day, a smile pulls unbidden at the corner of his mouth.
Callan squeezes his hand and beams. “Together. For them.”
Slowly, Les nods.
“...For them.”
Artist Comment:
December 31, 2024
-----------------
MORE SQUID DRAMA & Last illustration and story of 2024~! 8D
This takes place when Les and Callan find out Ellie is pregnant with Kade and Emma~
OH!!! I just realized something really important before I posted this. SO!!! I don't think anyone aside from 1 other person knows about this. The volcano incident. It's NEVER been mentioned until now, so just to sum things up real quickly since it has nothing to do with the story above, and I don't want to take attention away from it: Bate saves Ellie, Les and Callan from an active volcanic eruption while on a vacation cruise to one of the faraway islands in West Nova. Bate wasn't originally going to go since Les didn't want Bate to come along during their family vacation (And Les is paying for it), but Ellie refused to go without Bate. When they ported (Bate was recovering on the ship since he got really sick from an incident with Les) the active volcano began to suddenly erupt. Bate noticed, and used whatever stamina he had left to rescue them one by one. /End context
OKAY!!! Now, time for some story breakdown! 8D
Oh, BOY. Les. LES, my man. Why do you always have to ruin such a special moment within the family. They haven't visited in MONTHS, and Ellie is literally one month of delivering. Anyone is Les' shoes would be so proud of being Grandparents...but not Les.
Throughout the entire story, he fabricates these set of standards of what HE thinks is correct, as well as him being portrayed as the reasonable, knowledgeable one in said scenario.
"He's not a difficult man"
"He's a simple man"
"He's not a disagreeable man"
In reality, Les is the complete opposite of all of those things he claims.
Les is extremely hardened in his ways. He believes the newer generation is more rebellious; something he doesn't recognize when he was a boy. BUT!! I do understand why he can hold these views close to him. It literally mirrors real life. There's always going to be a group in each generation who doesn't like the newer generation. They're not willing to put the effort to learn and to understand, and prefers to keep simple values. Though, simple values are so broad. Who can define what simple values are? One person's values can mean the complete opposite for another. Ellie just wants a simple life with Bate. She wants to raise a family in Kalmari and spend her life with the one she fell in love with. But Les sees it as an act of rebellion in his eyes. His values are traditional- Values he THINKS are superior above all else.
--
There was a time in Les’ life when the world made sense. Back then, people had decent heads on their shoulders. They knew what it meant to be responsible, respectful"
Such hypocrisy, imo. Les doesn't even have the decency to respect his daughter's wishes of literally not being a jerk to Bate, because his views and values are superior to theirs. Bate has been nothing but respectful, and yet that doesn't sway Les' views to show respect back to him. So, how can Les claim he knows what being respectful means when he doesn't bother giving it back. Just like Kade in the previous story, Les does not use Bate's name when referring to him. It's always, "Ellie's husband." "Her husband" "That man" "Outsider" It's honestly such disgusting behavior. Petty and childish. It feels like, when Les finally sees Bate as someone of value, then Bate will be worthy enough of Les to call him by his name. Just more of a power trip, if anything.
---
But above all else! I think this is the one thing that bugs me the most. Les has absolutely no idea how difficult it's been for Bate and Ellie to conceive children. They struggled so so very much throughout it all. Ellie didn't have parents to fall back on during these stressful periods. Aside from Bate, of course, Ellie relied a lot on Alba, and possibly Mira. And Bate relied on Gordon. It was a very low point in their lives. Bate and Ellie had the support of their friends in the absent of her parents.
And the really sad thing is, IF Ellie did go to her parents about the failed pregnancies, Les would put the blame on them.
"Well, they asked for this. They should've known better."
No consoling, and no comfort on Les' end. He'd probably just use the opportunity to say he was right the entire time.
--------------------
All in all. I really feel for Ellie. She can't do no right in her father's eyes. She's built a wonderful life, has a supportive, strong, loving husband, and two kids on the way. And somehow Les is the victim in all this. He can't be glad for anyone because it doesn't align with his agenda.
It's all so terrible. Because we all know Les will cater to Emma in the end, and treat Kade exactly how he treats Bate.
------------------------------------------------------
But yeee, those are just my thoughts. So if you stuck around this long, thank you for taking the time to read everything!
-
The amazing literature written for this illustration was commissioned by my good friend, Dogblog. (dA- Shadowrealmprincess) ^v^ Year by year, it's always great to work with them to make these stories come to life. I will always be grateful for their hard work they put with each story, and I hope 2025 will be filled with even more adventures~ >v<
December 31, 2024
-----------------
MORE SQUID DRAMA & Last illustration and story of 2024~! 8D
This takes place when Les and Callan find out Ellie is pregnant with Kade and Emma~
OH!!! I just realized something really important before I posted this. SO!!! I don't think anyone aside from 1 other person knows about this. The volcano incident. It's NEVER been mentioned until now, so just to sum things up real quickly since it has nothing to do with the story above, and I don't want to take attention away from it: Bate saves Ellie, Les and Callan from an active volcanic eruption while on a vacation cruise to one of the faraway islands in West Nova. Bate wasn't originally going to go since Les didn't want Bate to come along during their family vacation (And Les is paying for it), but Ellie refused to go without Bate. When they ported (Bate was recovering on the ship since he got really sick from an incident with Les) the active volcano began to suddenly erupt. Bate noticed, and used whatever stamina he had left to rescue them one by one. /End context
OKAY!!! Now, time for some story breakdown! 8D
Oh, BOY. Les. LES, my man. Why do you always have to ruin such a special moment within the family. They haven't visited in MONTHS, and Ellie is literally one month of delivering. Anyone is Les' shoes would be so proud of being Grandparents...but not Les.
Throughout the entire story, he fabricates these set of standards of what HE thinks is correct, as well as him being portrayed as the reasonable, knowledgeable one in said scenario.
"He's not a difficult man"
"He's a simple man"
"He's not a disagreeable man"
In reality, Les is the complete opposite of all of those things he claims.
Les is extremely hardened in his ways. He believes the newer generation is more rebellious; something he doesn't recognize when he was a boy. BUT!! I do understand why he can hold these views close to him. It literally mirrors real life. There's always going to be a group in each generation who doesn't like the newer generation. They're not willing to put the effort to learn and to understand, and prefers to keep simple values. Though, simple values are so broad. Who can define what simple values are? One person's values can mean the complete opposite for another. Ellie just wants a simple life with Bate. She wants to raise a family in Kalmari and spend her life with the one she fell in love with. But Les sees it as an act of rebellion in his eyes. His values are traditional- Values he THINKS are superior above all else.
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There was a time in Les’ life when the world made sense. Back then, people had decent heads on their shoulders. They knew what it meant to be responsible, respectful"
Such hypocrisy, imo. Les doesn't even have the decency to respect his daughter's wishes of literally not being a jerk to Bate, because his views and values are superior to theirs. Bate has been nothing but respectful, and yet that doesn't sway Les' views to show respect back to him. So, how can Les claim he knows what being respectful means when he doesn't bother giving it back. Just like Kade in the previous story, Les does not use Bate's name when referring to him. It's always, "Ellie's husband." "Her husband" "That man" "Outsider" It's honestly such disgusting behavior. Petty and childish. It feels like, when Les finally sees Bate as someone of value, then Bate will be worthy enough of Les to call him by his name. Just more of a power trip, if anything.
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But above all else! I think this is the one thing that bugs me the most. Les has absolutely no idea how difficult it's been for Bate and Ellie to conceive children. They struggled so so very much throughout it all. Ellie didn't have parents to fall back on during these stressful periods. Aside from Bate, of course, Ellie relied a lot on Alba, and possibly Mira. And Bate relied on Gordon. It was a very low point in their lives. Bate and Ellie had the support of their friends in the absent of her parents.
And the really sad thing is, IF Ellie did go to her parents about the failed pregnancies, Les would put the blame on them.
"Well, they asked for this. They should've known better."
No consoling, and no comfort on Les' end. He'd probably just use the opportunity to say he was right the entire time.
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All in all. I really feel for Ellie. She can't do no right in her father's eyes. She's built a wonderful life, has a supportive, strong, loving husband, and two kids on the way. And somehow Les is the victim in all this. He can't be glad for anyone because it doesn't align with his agenda.
It's all so terrible. Because we all know Les will cater to Emma in the end, and treat Kade exactly how he treats Bate.
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But yeee, those are just my thoughts. So if you stuck around this long, thank you for taking the time to read everything!
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The amazing literature written for this illustration was commissioned by my good friend, Dogblog. (dA- Shadowrealmprincess) ^v^ Year by year, it's always great to work with them to make these stories come to life. I will always be grateful for their hard work they put with each story, and I hope 2025 will be filled with even more adventures~ >v<
Species © Nintendo/ HAL Laboratory
Interpreted characters created from said species © Rhylem
Interpreted characters created from said species © Rhylem
