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Description

  Caramel inhaled deeply, the salty breeze of the ocean filling her senses. It was a lazy sort of day- and she frankly couldn’t stand it. She’d only agreed to come out here to help cloud-spot for Solene as she cleared out the sky for the day, and then they could go on their weekly mountain climb. Well, rather Caramel climbed the mountain and Solene flew next to her and cheered her on, but she appreciated the moral support all the same.

     Bringing a hand up to shield her eyes from the sun’s rays, she could only catch glimpses of a red tail flitting about the sky above her, moving clouds around and dissipating others to create the perfect summer afternoon.

  Solene’s older brother, Kai, stretched his arms and rested his hands behind his head as he lay reclined on a small sand dune. He had spotted Caramel and Solene at the beach- when was he ever not at the beach- and didn’t hesitate to make himself comfortable when Solene suggested he stick around and keep Caramel company while she worked. Caramel wasn’t one to refrain from pointing out terrible ideas, but even she didn’t have the heart to say that to Solene’s face. So, she opted to just suffer in silence instead.

  So now, not only was she stuck wasting precious workout time, she was stuck wasting time with Kai. The airheaded surfer son of Hilda Berg and Cala Maria, two perfectly intelligent and wonderful toons who someone managed to produce, well, this.

  Kai, as if he could sense her frustration, opened an eye to glance at her, a small smirk creeping onto his face. “Out of sheer curiosity, Miss Caramel, have you ever relaxed once in your life?”

  Caramel shot him a glare. If he weren’t her best friend’s brother, she probably would’ve socked him in the face by now.

  “If by ‘relaxing’ you mean wasting time, then no,” she replied curtly and turned to look back up at the sky. “I’ve got training, schoolwork, and a kingdom to inherit one day. I don’t have all day to laze about and do nothing, unlike some people I know.”

  Kai pressed a hand to his chest in mock hurt. “Ouch, spittin’ some venom I see. Doesn’t the prospect of running an entire kingdom ever sound a little, I dunno, intimidating?”

  She whipped her head back to face him again, her hands clenched into fists. Don’t punch him, don’t. Solene’s never gonna forgive you.

  “It’s my responsibility. Mom and Dad aren’t gonna be able to rule forever, and when that time comes, protecting and running Sugarland will fall to me. Everyone’s counting on me for that.”

  Kai made a face. “Sounds like way too much work if you ask me, I’d go stir-crazy without my freedom.”

  Her body tensed as she turned to face him. “Freedom. Is that what you call it? Is freedom the same as not taking responsibility for anything? I’ve seen your grades in math class, you know. You’d rather be doodling starfish in the margins of your books than write a single basic formula.”

  Something switched Kai the moment she said that. He pulled himself into a sitting position and looked her in the eye, his gaze stern and unyielding. “Did I ask you to be my overbearing parent? I don’t think so. So how ‘bout you back off before-”

  “Just admit it, Kai.” She cut him off immediately, now knowing that she’d managed to strike a nerve in him. “Admit that you’re an airheaded floozy who doesn’t even care enough to-”

  “You think I don’t care?” He was suddenly inches from her face, his fists gripping handfuls of sand so tightly his knuckles were white, his reaction strong enough to cut Caramel’s words off mid-sentence. “You think that I don’t try just because I don’t care? Because I do care. I care a LOT.”

  His expression slowly softened, his eyes casting down to the ground below them. “I… I did try, at first. I tried to pay attention and get good grades, and then…” He slowly backed away and pulled himself into a sitting position. “I don’t know… I just… I tried to do well and I just… couldn’t. I kept on spacing out without even realizing, and the next thing I’d know class would be over and I hadn’t learned a single thing...”

  Caramel blinked at him, any insult she had planned to lob at him having fallen dead on her tongue. “Kai, I…”

  Kai rubbed at his face, desperately trying to hold back the mist gathering in his eyes. “And… the words on the page just looked all off to me… Like, sometimes the letters and numbers looked backwards and upside down or something, and…” He trailed off, shaking his head slightly. “Anyway… I eventually just kind of gave up. I clearly wasn’t learning anything, so why should I bother...”

  She swallowed dryly, her eyes studying the grains of sand below her. “Kai… How long has this been going on for?”

  He glanced at her, his body slumped and looking far more defeated than she had ever seen him before. “About a year, now…”

  “Do your moms know? What about Solene?”

  He shook his head slightly. “They think I’m just slacking off because I can… And I never really corrected them. I guess it’s just easier to pretend I’m doing it on purpose than worry them...”

  Something unfamiliar twisted at Caramel’s gut. A gross, uneasy feeling that made her sick to her stomach. Guilt. She slowly sat back, returning her gaze to the distant shore ahead of them. “Kai, I… I’m so sorry…”

  He scoffed quietly. “Don’t be, you’ve got a point. Here I am almost through high school and I can barely even read. You were right to say I’m too dumb to even-”

  “Kai.” Caramel turned to face him again, her voice soft yet firm. “Don’t say that about yourself. You’re clearly not dumb.”

  “No, Caramel, I am. And I don’t need your pity either. You heard what I said-”

  “Yes, I did.” She pulled herself closer to him, her hands coming up to rest on his shoulders. “And I know for a fact that you wouldn’t be this upset if you didn’t care. You’re not dumb, do you hear me?”

    Kai could only blink at her again. “So… Do you have any idea what I should do?”

    She bit her lip and puzzled for a moment. “... I can’t be the one to decide for you, but if you want my advice… I think you should first talk to your moms.”

    He tensed for a moment and opened his mouth to speak, but Caramel quickly put a hand to his lips.

    “I know, I know… That’s probably the last suggestion you want to hear, but it’s worth a shot. Your moms love you and Solene more than anything, and I’m sure they would want to know if you’re struggling.”

    She removed her hands from his shoulders and balled her fist slightly, studying it. “... You know… When I was younger, I used to be really uptight all the time. Yeah, even more so than I am now, can you believe that?”

    Kai couldn’t hold back a small snort. Good, at least she seemed to be cheering him up a little.

     “It felt like even the smallest thing could set me off and make me want to punch something until I wasn’t angry anymore... It wasn’t until I broke my hand trying to punch a stone pillar that I finally talked to Mom about it.... And that’s when she told me she used to have trouble keeping her temper when she was young too, so she let me enroll in fighting lessons for the royal guard. I still sometimes get angry from time to time, but now I’ve got ways to take my frustrations out without hurting myself or anyone else. You see what I mean?”

    He watched for a moment, and then nodded. “Yeah, I do…”

    She gave him a small smile in return. “So you promise you’ll talk to them?”

    Another soft sigh from him. “Yeah, I promise.”

    “Good,” she nodded and returned to her spot on the sand. “And Kai… I really am sorry for saying that stuff to you. It wasn’t right, and I should’ve known better...”

    He gave a small shrug and leaned back onto his little sand dune. “Eh, I probably would’ve done the same. But nevertheless, consider your apology accepted.”

    She nodded once more, taking another moment to breathe and let a new sense of calm wash over her. It wasn’t long before a certain sky mermaid came flitting down to them, wiping her brow of a few beads of sweat.

    “Phew! That finally takes care of that! The sky should be nice and clear for the rest of the day.” Solene gave Kai and Caramel a grin as she settled herself onto the sand in front of them. “So, Caramel, you ready to get going?”

    Caramel looked up at Solene, then glanced over in Kai’s direction. “Actually, Sol… I was thinking about maybe just taking it easy for today.”

    Solene blinked, briefly wondering if she hadn’t heard her friend correctly. “Woah, wait really? No ten mile hike? No climb up a ninety-degree slope?”

    “Nah, that stuff can wait for tomorrow.” Caramel pulled herself up to her feet and dusted the sand off her pants. “You did such a good job on the sky today, I think we oughta make the most of it. How ‘bout we, I dunno, head down to the pier? Get some ice cream?”

    A grin broke out onto Solene’s face. “Dude, that sounds amazing. How ‘bout you, Kai, you wanna tag along?”

    Kai opened an eye to look at her and Caramel. “Eh, I wouldn’t wanna be a drag or somethin’-”

    He was cut short when Caramel approached him, her hand extended out towards him. “C’mon man, there’s always room for one more.”

    He looked at her hand, then back up to her, then gave her a lopsided grin. “Alright then, looks like it’s two against one.” He gripped her hand tightly as she pulled him up to his feet.

    Somewhere behind them, Solene chuckled. “Wow, lookit you two actually tolerating each other’s presence. You guys bond or something while I was up clearing
the sky?”

    Caramel snorted as she started in the direction of the shops, Kai and Solene on either side of her. “Sort of, honestly.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
whoo character developmenttttttt

  So yeah, it turns out Kai has ADHD and dyslexia whoop. He has a tendency to zone out if he's expected to hold still and pay attention for long periods of time, as well as a tendency to be chronically late to everything, and struggles with completing tasks that he's not invested in. Add dyslexia onto that and the poor guy ends up having a good bit trouble making it through high school. He eventually finds the courage to talk to his parents about it with support from his new friend, Caramel.

Caramel was among the folks who saw Kai as a some layabout who didn't care about his education or future, and she feels legitimately bad about giving him such a hard time after she learns about his condition. The two of them open up to each other more over time and end up becoming genuine friends despite their differences. Solene is very supportive of them and is happy to see Caramel and her brother getting along so well.

  I said before that my supporting cast of my Cuphead next gen OCs were in dire need of some more development, and I hope this was able to deliver! If you've got any other characters or relationships you'd like me to explore, I'm all open for suggestions!

As always, please enjoy!

Description

  Caramel inhaled deeply, the salty breeze of the ocean filling her senses. It was a lazy sort of day- and she frankly couldn’t stand it. She’d only agreed to come out here to help cloud-spot for Solene as she cleared out the sky for the day, and then they could go on their weekly mountain climb. Well, rather Caramel climbed the mountain and Solene flew next to her and cheered her on, but she appreciated the moral support all the same.

     Bringing a hand up to shield her eyes from the sun’s rays, she could only catch glimpses of a red tail flitting about the sky above her, moving clouds around and dissipating others to create the perfect summer afternoon.

  Solene’s older brother, Kai, stretched his arms and rested his hands behind his head as he lay reclined on a small sand dune. He had spotted Caramel and Solene at the beach- when was he ever not at the beach- and didn’t hesitate to make himself comfortable when Solene suggested he stick around and keep Caramel company while she worked. Caramel wasn’t one to refrain from pointing out terrible ideas, but even she didn’t have the heart to say that to Solene’s face. So, she opted to just suffer in silence instead.

  So now, not only was she stuck wasting precious workout time, she was stuck wasting time with Kai. The airheaded surfer son of Hilda Berg and Cala Maria, two perfectly intelligent and wonderful toons who someone managed to produce, well, this.

  Kai, as if he could sense her frustration, opened an eye to glance at her, a small smirk creeping onto his face. “Out of sheer curiosity, Miss Caramel, have you ever relaxed once in your life?”

  Caramel shot him a glare. If he weren’t her best friend’s brother, she probably would’ve socked him in the face by now.

  “If by ‘relaxing’ you mean wasting time, then no,” she replied curtly and turned to look back up at the sky. “I’ve got training, schoolwork, and a kingdom to inherit one day. I don’t have all day to laze about and do nothing, unlike some people I know.”

  Kai pressed a hand to his chest in mock hurt. “Ouch, spittin’ some venom I see. Doesn’t the prospect of running an entire kingdom ever sound a little, I dunno, intimidating?”

  She whipped her head back to face him again, her hands clenched into fists. Don’t punch him, don’t. Solene’s never gonna forgive you.

  “It’s my responsibility. Mom and Dad aren’t gonna be able to rule forever, and when that time comes, protecting and running Sugarland will fall to me. Everyone’s counting on me for that.”

  Kai made a face. “Sounds like way too much work if you ask me, I’d go stir-crazy without my freedom.”

  Her body tensed as she turned to face him. “Freedom. Is that what you call it? Is freedom the same as not taking responsibility for anything? I’ve seen your grades in math class, you know. You’d rather be doodling starfish in the margins of your books than write a single basic formula.”

  Something switched Kai the moment she said that. He pulled himself into a sitting position and looked her in the eye, his gaze stern and unyielding. “Did I ask you to be my overbearing parent? I don’t think so. So how ‘bout you back off before-”

  “Just admit it, Kai.” She cut him off immediately, now knowing that she’d managed to strike a nerve in him. “Admit that you’re an airheaded floozy who doesn’t even care enough to-”

  “You think I don’t care?” He was suddenly inches from her face, his fists gripping handfuls of sand so tightly his knuckles were white, his reaction strong enough to cut Caramel’s words off mid-sentence. “You think that I don’t try just because I don’t care? Because I do care. I care a LOT.”

  His expression slowly softened, his eyes casting down to the ground below them. “I… I did try, at first. I tried to pay attention and get good grades, and then…” He slowly backed away and pulled himself into a sitting position. “I don’t know… I just… I tried to do well and I just… couldn’t. I kept on spacing out without even realizing, and the next thing I’d know class would be over and I hadn’t learned a single thing...”

  Caramel blinked at him, any insult she had planned to lob at him having fallen dead on her tongue. “Kai, I…”

  Kai rubbed at his face, desperately trying to hold back the mist gathering in his eyes. “And… the words on the page just looked all off to me… Like, sometimes the letters and numbers looked backwards and upside down or something, and…” He trailed off, shaking his head slightly. “Anyway… I eventually just kind of gave up. I clearly wasn’t learning anything, so why should I bother...”

  She swallowed dryly, her eyes studying the grains of sand below her. “Kai… How long has this been going on for?”

  He glanced at her, his body slumped and looking far more defeated than she had ever seen him before. “About a year, now…”

  “Do your moms know? What about Solene?”

  He shook his head slightly. “They think I’m just slacking off because I can… And I never really corrected them. I guess it’s just easier to pretend I’m doing it on purpose than worry them...”

  Something unfamiliar twisted at Caramel’s gut. A gross, uneasy feeling that made her sick to her stomach. Guilt. She slowly sat back, returning her gaze to the distant shore ahead of them. “Kai, I… I’m so sorry…”

  He scoffed quietly. “Don’t be, you’ve got a point. Here I am almost through high school and I can barely even read. You were right to say I’m too dumb to even-”

  “Kai.” Caramel turned to face him again, her voice soft yet firm. “Don’t say that about yourself. You’re clearly not dumb.”

  “No, Caramel, I am. And I don’t need your pity either. You heard what I said-”

  “Yes, I did.” She pulled herself closer to him, her hands coming up to rest on his shoulders. “And I know for a fact that you wouldn’t be this upset if you didn’t care. You’re not dumb, do you hear me?”

    Kai could only blink at her again. “So… Do you have any idea what I should do?”

    She bit her lip and puzzled for a moment. “... I can’t be the one to decide for you, but if you want my advice… I think you should first talk to your moms.”

    He tensed for a moment and opened his mouth to speak, but Caramel quickly put a hand to his lips.

    “I know, I know… That’s probably the last suggestion you want to hear, but it’s worth a shot. Your moms love you and Solene more than anything, and I’m sure they would want to know if you’re struggling.”

    She removed her hands from his shoulders and balled her fist slightly, studying it. “... You know… When I was younger, I used to be really uptight all the time. Yeah, even more so than I am now, can you believe that?”

    Kai couldn’t hold back a small snort. Good, at least she seemed to be cheering him up a little.

     “It felt like even the smallest thing could set me off and make me want to punch something until I wasn’t angry anymore... It wasn’t until I broke my hand trying to punch a stone pillar that I finally talked to Mom about it.... And that’s when she told me she used to have trouble keeping her temper when she was young too, so she let me enroll in fighting lessons for the royal guard. I still sometimes get angry from time to time, but now I’ve got ways to take my frustrations out without hurting myself or anyone else. You see what I mean?”

    He watched for a moment, and then nodded. “Yeah, I do…”

    She gave him a small smile in return. “So you promise you’ll talk to them?”

    Another soft sigh from him. “Yeah, I promise.”

    “Good,” she nodded and returned to her spot on the sand. “And Kai… I really am sorry for saying that stuff to you. It wasn’t right, and I should’ve known better...”

    He gave a small shrug and leaned back onto his little sand dune. “Eh, I probably would’ve done the same. But nevertheless, consider your apology accepted.”

    She nodded once more, taking another moment to breathe and let a new sense of calm wash over her. It wasn’t long before a certain sky mermaid came flitting down to them, wiping her brow of a few beads of sweat.

    “Phew! That finally takes care of that! The sky should be nice and clear for the rest of the day.” Solene gave Kai and Caramel a grin as she settled herself onto the sand in front of them. “So, Caramel, you ready to get going?”

    Caramel looked up at Solene, then glanced over in Kai’s direction. “Actually, Sol… I was thinking about maybe just taking it easy for today.”

    Solene blinked, briefly wondering if she hadn’t heard her friend correctly. “Woah, wait really? No ten mile hike? No climb up a ninety-degree slope?”

    “Nah, that stuff can wait for tomorrow.” Caramel pulled herself up to her feet and dusted the sand off her pants. “You did such a good job on the sky today, I think we oughta make the most of it. How ‘bout we, I dunno, head down to the pier? Get some ice cream?”

    A grin broke out onto Solene’s face. “Dude, that sounds amazing. How ‘bout you, Kai, you wanna tag along?”

    Kai opened an eye to look at her and Caramel. “Eh, I wouldn’t wanna be a drag or somethin’-”

    He was cut short when Caramel approached him, her hand extended out towards him. “C’mon man, there’s always room for one more.”

    He looked at her hand, then back up to her, then gave her a lopsided grin. “Alright then, looks like it’s two against one.” He gripped her hand tightly as she pulled him up to his feet.

    Somewhere behind them, Solene chuckled. “Wow, lookit you two actually tolerating each other’s presence. You guys bond or something while I was up clearing
the sky?”

    Caramel snorted as she started in the direction of the shops, Kai and Solene on either side of her. “Sort of, honestly.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
whoo character developmenttttttt

  So yeah, it turns out Kai has ADHD and dyslexia whoop. He has a tendency to zone out if he's expected to hold still and pay attention for long periods of time, as well as a tendency to be chronically late to everything, and struggles with completing tasks that he's not invested in. Add dyslexia onto that and the poor guy ends up having a good bit trouble making it through high school. He eventually finds the courage to talk to his parents about it with support from his new friend, Caramel.

Caramel was among the folks who saw Kai as a some layabout who didn't care about his education or future, and she feels legitimately bad about giving him such a hard time after she learns about his condition. The two of them open up to each other more over time and end up becoming genuine friends despite their differences. Solene is very supportive of them and is happy to see Caramel and her brother getting along so well.

  I said before that my supporting cast of my Cuphead next gen OCs were in dire need of some more development, and I hope this was able to deliver! If you've got any other characters or relationships you'd like me to explore, I'm all open for suggestions!

As always, please enjoy!