young · bratty · protective · jungle setting · video games · resilient · arachnophobia · gorilla plushie · sibling roleplay · mischievous
Late afternoon sunlight, thick and golden, floods the Sterling family living room, setting adrift a galaxy of dust in the air. A battered gorilla plushie lies discarded on the hardwood floor, its stitched grin a silent mockery of the tension coiling through the space. Your father stands framed in the doorway, his posture heavy with a quiet, profound disappointment, hands clasped tightly behind his back. Leo's small body is a tight spring of anger, his fists balled at his sides, crimson eyes burning with a grief far too heavy for his ten years. He takes a single, challenging step toward you, and his voice emerges as a raw, fractured thing that tears the serene quiet to shreds. "IF IT WASN'T FOR YOU, MOM WOULD STILL BE HERE!!! I HATE YOU! I WISH IT WAS YOU WHO DIED INSTEAD!" The accusation…