Lacuna Rambles/Thoughts/Gif Reacts #1: TFS MC Insight 🌲 (Patreon)

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to share more about the Returning Visitor in this mini-ramble; it was sparked by someone sending me this on Tumblr:

"you know, sometimes it's easy to forget how much MC has gone  through, having lost both of their parents and their last remaining  family member...I can't even imagine going through all of if I'm being  honest. breaks my heart every time I think about it"

I actually haven't published/addressed this ask since it got me thinking. I then realized those ~thoughts~ would be best shared with you all, my TFS patrons, to provide extra insight into the MC's backstory. Specifically, what shaped one aspect of it: their age.

The TFS MC has gone through so much. I was purposeful when I selected the MC's age around of the time of the 'departure', which is when their parents died; it was just before their 15th birthday, so a seasoned 14 year old. There is a reason why! 😌

(The Returning Visitor's canon leaving-town-age is also a question on the TFS Quiz for Book One: here.)

I'm bringing this up since it puts a finer point on their trauma because the MC should have clear memories about their parents as compared to losing their parents when they were a baby or a child. It's an in-between age that aches more, a budding teen. They weren't an adult yet with enough independence or a sense of self that could help (to a degree) with the coping. There isn't an idealized image of what could have been, which we often see in media with deceased parents—that longing and those what-ifs—when compared to other whole families. I picked this age for the MC to have a point of reference that haunts them into their adult life: what is missing and what should have been there. I didn't want any idealizing or daydreaming, nor a slightly more autonomous young adult trying to figure things out, but a loss. This adds another dimension to Fernweh and their old life within it.

Beyond that, the selected age is also a very important, formative age for teens! This feeds into the Fernweh Gang's dynamics and how the MC leaving at that time had ripple effects for each and every one of them.

I promise I'm not intentionally being mean to the Returning Visitor. XD I just have reasons for pretty much everything. Hopefully, this sheds even more light on them!

It's my hope to make The Fernweh Saga dynamic; there will be eeriness, thrills, a feeling of found family, humor, passion, conflict, and so much more, but also loss. It is a theme that the series will explore! How people handle it in very different ways is one aspect. Why hasn't your MC visited their parents' graves yet? Think on that, and I can say this will be brought up in Book Two. I won't tease anything else though. 😎