Adelaide and Aiyana's relationship is very special to me. It's something that some people who are close to me even struggle to understand the writing of (and I often refuse to explain LOL), but I like them.. Mentally ill together. Get better then reconnect. Continue to be painful in ways but still love one another and try to give each other the benefit of the doubt. Comforting.
Honestly.... Probably lesbianism. Adelaide likes Aiyana's appearance and general demeanor even if she isn't keenly aware of it. The girls she deems as special are people who display 'otherness' in a way that's hard for her to understand and it's something she finds herself drawn to.. Aiyana is visibly mentally ill and always isolated.. it appealed to her at the time.
I don't have drawings of Aiyana and Adelaide together.. So many things to make...
Adelaide is harsh on everyone and expects most people to do "good" work... but Adelaide has weird feelings about Emma since she partially contributed to her existence. She's irritated that Aiyana isn't 'progressing' but she doesn't see Emma as a complete failure because Aiyana has a job and is looking healthy and mostly happy..
But Adelaide feels disturbed by Aiyana still.. Her eating habits, her lack of friends, her homebody tendencies, etc... She wishes Emma would push Aiyana further.. But of course, she knows she shouldn't give suggestions to Emma now ^^;
I like Adelaide :) Adelaide is not a trustworthy person to describe her own life due to the conflict of appearing to have a high ego while having a low self esteem. She believes her life has been good because she has been able to live self-suffienciently, but Aiyana is the opposite of everything Adelaide aspires to have for herself. This to Adelaide means Aiyana's life was worse because she failed to become a functioning adult capable of making decisions for herself.
Despite Adelaide's desire to be self sufficient, she is a very tired woman because she is constantly chasing self-suffiency.. She is envious of Aiyana having a house left to her and Aiyana's ability to just not participate in life.. while Adelaide feels like she must keep working, making stressful decisions, and keep pushing herself harder. She is constantly uncomfortable and stressed, hence her tendency to drink. She knows some aspects of her life are dysfunctional but she cannot identify how to fix it due to many of her problems being core parts of her personality, so she copes. Adelaide especially struggles with a lack of empathy.. She can understand other emotions from an objective viewpoint but she cannot.. feel them. But she also desires to not be a bad person despite knowing she can be cruel and at times sharp.
Regarding her family, Adelaide's relationship with her family.. is.. Like.. Her family had children to raise them to be functioning members of society. She keeps in contact with them and vice versa because it is useful. Everyone in her family views the family dynamic as one that is useful. You can always go back to family if everything goes wrong. She does not like relying on them but she knows if she needs to, she can. Her family has similar feelings about her. They'd probably be okay borrowing money from each other. They are all very reliable people, but they are not very friendly with one another outside of basic pleasantries. Her house had problems (ie the lack of emotional availability amongst everyone), but she'd never describe it as traumatic or abusive.
For this reason, Adelaide struggles to wrap her head around Aiyana's feelings about her mom and will listen with her eyebrows furrowed and with a frown. Even though she can't empathize, she recognizes why Aiyana is the way that she is, and her understanding of Aiyana increased during their time apart due to her degree and leaving her small town.... She does not want to involve herself a lot of the time, but she also does not think life is fair, so she doesn't mind helping Aiyana in unfair ways (ie giving Aiyana paperwork that describes her as being higher functioning than she is.)
To add on, Adelaide loves Aiyana very much. She does not want to help Aiyana, but she will if she feels like its a problem Aiyana cannot solve on her own. There are not many people Adelaide loves, and Aiyana is one of them. Even in their time apart, she thought about her and Aiyana influenced Adelaide's life choices in many ways...
For other notes, there are a few things that could've happened to Aiyana. It depends on if Aiyana would allow her family to easily take her things or if she got into a legal battle.. Her family is bad, but they do not express a desire to outright harm her- it's just their own desires tend to push Aiyana to the wayside. They would not leave her homeless, but she would not live an easy life either. Chances are she'd end up with some family members with some kind of guardian or in a home for disabled people. No one in her family would want to take care of Aiyana, but being her guardian would give them access to her resources and you know.. They want to take care of dead relative's disabled daughter in an abstract way. Keeping her in their house and doing the bare minimum or putting her in a home would be enough for them.
Regarding friendships, Adelaide is Aiyana's only friend (well not including Eva and Emma), but Aiyana did have acquiantances.. She was isolated but saw her family from time to time before her mother's death and the guardianship issues.. Adelaide doesn't like being her only friend but can't fix it, and she doesn't feel like she has room to talk. Her own friendships are usually born out of necessity or proximity, and they tend to fizzle out over time.. She gets along with other mentally ill women mostly, hence her continuing to be in contact with Calliope and Eleanor... Also she likes T4T friendships, but she just doesn't have anyone like that in her hometown...
The relationship the two of them have makes Adelaide irritated in a way that she probably can't even begin to articulate, but Eva has really entertwined herself into Adelaide's life in a way Adelaide can't imagine disentangling. It'd be more difficult for Adelaide to live without Eva than vice versa, and Adelaide also loves Eva very much so it ends up making more sense from a love, pragmatic, and relationship standpoint even if she feels weird about it.
Part of her thinks Evangeline will grow up and decide she doesn't want to rely on mean frilly lady anymore. She wants this to happen but also Does Not for obvious reasons... But she doesn't understand Evangeline loves her for reasons that are beyond her 'societal' value as a partner.. She's slowly accepting it but can't wrap her head around why someone like Eva tolerates her...
So that is to say, don't worry too much. Eva has more cards over state of relationship and ending it is not on her mind!
Thanks for being interested in them also! I wasn't sure if anyone would like her.. Adelaide is a kind of character I've wanted to tackle for a bit and responses to her were about what I expected in some ways but I was surprised by the amount of people who understood and/or felt fondness towards her! My favorite variant are the people who understand her but dislike her anyways LOL. I hope to explore them more in a doujinshi.. Whenever I finish it!
Beautiful art from Kails