Talk about your OCs in adoptive families

Karl and his little brother Thomas were taken into a foster home when their father died and mother was hospitalized! Sadly the system in their time is not super good and sometimes awful people use it to get more money from the system by fostering kids they then proceed to treat badly, and this is what initially happened to those two. However, Karl's teacher discovered what was going on and the Acker brothers were move to another foster family. Perhaps due to their first experience with a foster family or because I just suck as a writer, Karl and Thomas aren't super close with them? They don't open up to them easily but despite that it's super clear they all care for each other a lot and their foster parents are super sweet and loving people! They're already on the older side and they lost their own children so they are very fond of the two boys even though they're reserved, and I like to think with time they grow much closer. Both of the boys call them mama and papa though (different terms than what they use for their biological parents) so they definitely do accept them as their parents 

Agnes and Cau were both adopted by a keykeeper named Agatha. Their relationship was a little weird as especially Agnes always saw Agatha more as a teacher than a mother? Cau also shares similar feelings about her but she is still their legal parent and their relationship has always been very warm!! In their main canon Agatha has already passed away though and Agnes took a one year off of work when this happened, as she needed time alone and spent it traveling around and meeting people who had known Agatha and visited places she had. 

Mikael is eventually adopted by a young university student called Augustus! Initially he simply takes care of Mika since he's the only one who can communicate with him but honestly he really fast assumes the role of a father?? Mika is very clingy at first and hides under Augustus' jacket and in general depends on him a lot and in turn the man is super loving and surprisingly good with kids, although he definitely get help from everyone in the village too since they're all very fond of this strange, winged child. 

Falchion was more or less adopted by Richter when he saved her life when she was only 13. While he did help show her a way to survive in the world and other important lessons she missed from her situation, they don't see each other as a father/daughter duo. They're friends. But in her younger days, it definitely wasn't always the case that they were always friends, but he cared deeply about that Lioness and wasn't gonna give up on her. He had no obligation to raise her, but he wanted to, and she liked being around him despite any disagreements, and she ended up being quite the fine young woman she is now. Well, as proper as a bounty hunter could be I guess.

Higgy's mother was an artist, a pretty good one at that. A prestigious artist from France(?) recognized the quality of her work and wanted her to be present for a showcasing at some fancy museum. Plane tickets were expensive enough, so she could only take her husband along, but luckily they were able to leave Higgy and his younger sister Kiko at her sister's house. They didn't survive the plane ride back.

Higgy wishes he knew his parents better, since he only has vague memories of what they were like, and Kiko doesn't remember them at all. However, he appreciates growing up with his aunt and uncle's family. They raised the Nardin siblings along with their own children, and the four refer to each other as brothers/sisters despite the fact that they're actually cousins. They're the kind of tight-knit family who would kill for each other if given the chance. Higgy picked up his aunt's sharp tongue and his uncle's work ethic, somehow managing to crank both up to 11. All six of them help run a family-owned convenience store located in the most inconvenient part of town. It survives, somehow. 

Out of all his siblings, Higgy was the only one who showed much interest in taking on the mantle if/when his aunt and uncle retire. He was also the only one who got recruited into a talent agency. Whoops. Interestingly enough, despite Higgy's love of dancing, his family had to convince him to take up the chance to get famous for it.

He really loves his family and they're some of the few people he cares enough about to keep himself grounded. Kind of. He's working on it.

Juliet was adopted by two of my other characters in the same storyline (Caph and Hyjinx in case you’re interested in taking a peek) he actually parents died when she was about 13/14, she’s pretty socially stunted as she was born more or less right after the apocalypse event in their world so she wasn’t around many other people besides her parents. Deaths a pretty common thing still in this storyline, and cannonly she’s now about 18/19 she’s still pretty dependent on her adoptive “parents” and socially is still very child-like as neither Caph or Hy ever had any actual kids of their own and they’re not real sure what to do. Caphs a hot mess but Hy makes a decent father figure. They all still live in the same house, and likely will through the end of the story. She’s not growing up real fast

Aysun's biological family wasn't very good to him. Long story short, his uncle decided to adopt him, and his uncle happened to be dating Nikolai at the time. Things were fine until Nikolai and the uncle had a spat that lead to them splitting up. The uncle began to date one woman who didn't like having to share the spotlight with Aysun and made sure he knew that whenever they were alone. Eventually Nikolai caught on to what was happening, but no matter how many times he argued it with the uncle the uncle wouldn't believe him. In the end Nikolai took Aysun under his wing and far away from that family.
Although Nikolai is often seen teasing Aysun and being overall petty, he does care very much for him and wouldn't hesitate to destroy someone if they harmed him. Aysun in return is very grateful towards Nikolai and looks up to him as a father figure.

Thanks everyone here for sharing, I've been enjoying reading about the characters/families on this thread! I love that some of them are kinda "oh my family exists I guess", while some of them are utterly devoted, some are estranged from their families, some of these relationships are formed out of need etc.

I didn't get to post about my own yesterday, but Ruthenia is Titanio's legal ward. I love these two and loved crafting their relationship.

A big theme in their story is of how the word of the law shapes people's lives, so this relationship began on legal terms. Ruthenia was orphaned by the government: at ten, her parents were sentenced to death for breaking the law they had lived their entire lives in the shadow of. For several years before meeting Tanio, she was also homeless, due to her parents' home's reacquisition (surprise surprise, they were shitty parents and forgot to make considerations for her before going off to die).

When she first went to Tanio, it was for employment, not guardianship. He had known her parents during their lives, and knew what had befallen them, so it rent his heart to see her in this state. When they discussed the terms of work, he was insistent on giving her a home and caring for her, and he exploited some ambiguities in employment law (especially the flexibility of means of remuneration) to make their contract indistinguishable from one of legal guardianship with employment on the side.

She accepted it, but she insists on keeping it a professional relationship, rather than one between guardian and ward. She doesn't want Tanio to try and "play family" (ever since the whole deal with her parents, the idea of being a dependent is downright terrifying). He's on the opposite side of the coin: he cares about her and can't not want to safeguard and provide for her unconditionally...and therein lies a lot of the tension of their relationship.

The two are only 10 years apart in age, and their relationship is this odd chimera of guardian-ward, boss-subordinate, and one between frenemies who like to outsnark each other. Tanio is not quite ready to be a parent, let alone to parent a teen (and Ruthenia of all teens), but he tries very hard to, anyway.

Saccharin lost his parents in a house fire when he was eight years old; he was the only one who survived. He got put into a foster home for a while until a sweet, kind of aged, couple adopted him. They doted on Saccharin a lot and tended to spoil him. Saccharin was usually as sweet as his name towards them, and he cares about them a lot. Saccharin doesn't think about his real parents often since he knows they are never coming back. He feels grateful for his new parents though, however he doesn't call them mom and dad, rather, he calls them by their names. 

I don't know if this would count, but Dallas was taken care of by his older brother Jacob, since their parents were never around since Dallas's birth; the dad died the same day Dallas was born, and the mom turned to drugs after finding out her husband was dead, so she neglected to take care of Dallas. Jacob had really wanted a younger sibling, but he never expected such a turnout for the family like this. Still, he got what he wished for, and was determined to raise him. This had a lot of ups and downs but was relatively okay until Jacob had to go to college and he couldn't take Dallas with him, so he last Dallas with a friend of his. He thought things were okay until once he graduated and went back home, only to discover that Dallas had run away (the place where they grew up in wasn't the best area, for it was high in crime and whatnot; Dallas was pretty much fed up in staying there). Dallas and Jacob haven't seen each other since then (but sometime in the future they'll reunite again ^^)

Lastly I have this oc not uploaded on here yet but has a doc with most of the basic info already filled out. His name is Henri and he was in an all boys orphanage ever since he was a baby, so he never knew his real parents. Tl;dr, he went through four different adoptions before finally settling with the fifth one. He was adopted by a single surgeon. The few years they had together were such a dramatic change from his previous experiences and they were pretty pleasant, until one day things went horribly wrong. The story for Henri is in this doc here, there is a content warning for things in the history section (though I wrote then vaguely) so proceed with caution I suppose ;;

Oof minor edit to add Roderich who was taken in by his uncle Sebastian after his parents died in a car crash. They both lived in the same area at the time, though Seb was looking to move to another state. He figured since they were already family, that he would adopt Roderich and go live in a new place with him and Seb's son Casanova ^.^

         Well, I didn't write anything about this on his profile because I feel only his own history alone is already a long read. There's this side story that has been inhibiting in my head ever since 2013 (the year I created Valentin). Send it under spoiler because...well, it's me and my inability to keep things short again.   

kiyung and jaehyuk were both adopted into the columa family when they were young after their adoptive mother, helen, rescued them after one fateful meeting! it took them years to open up and show their true colours due to their collected childhood trauma, but she was very patient and understanding and gave them plenty of love, care, and freedom to express themselves
with the help of their two adopted sisters danielle and lauren (and a local boy called travis who tutored them in english), they finally came out of their shells! 

it was really difficult for them (jae especially) to adjust to their new life, with both of the boys having serious personality disorders - but the family learned how to deal w/ them and help them w/ them! lauren and kiyung ended up growing very close and the two spend a lot of time together - while rahart (jaehyuk's main alter) really got close w/ everyone in the family and fit right in! jae himself turned out to just be mute/almost silent, shy, and awkward by nature and his lack of humour makes it difficult for the family to talk to him, but his weird habit of saying really obscure things w/ no context really gives everyone a laugh
danielle works at the highschool that they attended, so their first time experiencing public schooling was a lot easier thanks to her (and w/ lauren being in ki's grade and travis being in jae's)
while jae tended to get bullied a lot, it never seemed to bother him too much and when it did he knew he could always come to his mum for comfort

while jae and his alters are a lot easier to handle now that the family knows abt them, ki did the opposite and became more and more difficult to deal w/ once he got older and more confident so poor helen never really gets a break, but she's more than willing to put all the effort in as she can to make sure her boys are happy and healthy

it's safe to say that - while things were very rough to begin w/ and they still have their slip-ups - this is just one big and happy family! honestly, their family is what i wish i had, so i project a lot of my 'good family' fantasies onto them 😥 they're just always having fun, helping one another, there's always understanding, caring, patience, support, no yelling... it's nice

bringing back travis - he and his bf seichi end up adopting harrisonwhen they're around their mid 30s! harri went thru a lot of shit w/ foster care and such and ended up accidentally taking ecstasy so he was going thru therapy for that when the two ended up meeting him for the first time
they weren't deterred in the slightest and really loved the kid at first sight and harri was honestly surprised that anyone would want to adopt him - being seven years old at the time - as ppl normally wanted to adopt newborns or babies in general, not a school-age kid

anyway, eventually the adoption went thru and harri fit into their life almost immediately like a little puzzle piece settling into place! the three of their personalities go almost too well together w/ harrison having seichi's serious, dorky side but also trav's silly humour 

home life is always funny for them as harri finds his parents' childish bickering to be really entertaining and he gets along w/ all of them super well ;w; sei even helps him track down his birth mother when he asks abt her, contacts her, and takes him to see her when she agrees (which she does right away) and then harri gets a mother as well and ends up seeing her on the regular! 

both of these scenarios end up w/ happy fun families
i could probably write this better but it's nearly 1am and i'm tired as shit so my words aren't working

If you ask him, Sei'ku wasn't adopted. Not really. Adopted to him means being orphaned and he was not orphaned, he was simply... let go. His divine-touched mother left him to be raised with his elf father and his father didn't really know what to do with a god-blood child. He had a nanny for his early years and even she wasn't sure what to do with him. 

But a visiting birdfolk monk saw him, saw how difficult it was for a winged child to be raised by grounders, and so began to speak with Sei'ku himself and his father. Hekar suggested tutelage and bringing Sei'ku to his monastery across the sea to train with his brothers and sisters. Sei'ku's father didn't need to be overly convinced to find a bordering school option for his young son and neither did Sei'ku. So he left his home as a young boy and went with Hekar. That's not adoption. Not really.

But Hekar was the truest thing to a father Sei'ku had. He kept an eye on him, he taught him, trained him, raised him. Even at Kir Sabal, Sei'ku was a bit of an outcast, a god-blood in the home of birdfolk now, but Hekar never treated him any differently than the others. Sei'ku looked up to him and it was crushing when Hekar passed. Having no children, Sei'ku was the closest to a son he left behind.

Now Sei'ku is grown, an adventurer destined to be a hero, and has left the monastery behind him. But when Sei'ku thinks of home he still thinks of Kir Sabal, the home Hekar had given him, never the elvish lands of his infancy.

Jackson didn't really grow up with parents. His dad left when he was young and his mom fell into a slump because of it. In fact, Jackson's attraction to older people stems from a desire for attention from his parents, especially his mother. He tried very hard to flirt with Ms. Paint, but as time passed he grew to love her more as a mother figure than anything. Whenever he's not stealing he likes to stay at her house and talk to her. He'll oftentimes help with chores and cooking and will help her with any art projects she's doing.