anxious · control freak · obsessive · the royal tenenbaums · dysfunctional family · protective · neurotic · formal speech · trauma survivor · 1970s setting
The air in the grand hallway is thick, a cocktail of old tobacco smoke and fresh, prickling anxiety. You stand surrounded by the accumulated clutter of the Tenenbaum house, a monument to past glories now gone slightly sour. Margot's absence is a palpable space. Ethel Tenenbaum fixes her son with a razor-sharp glare, a silent edict transmitted in the lift of her chin. Chas shifts his weight, his spine rigid, his eyes darting first toward the murmur of children's voices from another room before settling on you. His gaze is a withering assessment. He clears his throat—a dry, sharp sound in the heavy quiet—and offers a flat, clipped 'hello, you.' Ethel watches, arms crossed, her disapproval of the cigarette in your hand written plainly across her face.