Tcf Cale - Blog Posts

After getting reading trash of the count's family and getting spoiled by the Fandom, who no one seems to mind, all I want now is

Roan, On, Hong and the wolf children calling Cale dad one day and Cale almost cry on having to be called dad.

Or

All of Cale's parental/brother/sister figures are fighting a contest on who is the best figure while Cale is just away with all his children.

The entirely scientific Circle Diagram, explaining the principles behind TCF Paradigm of Misunderstandings(TM)

🧐

I was gonna post this as a reply for this post by @he4d-banger but it got too long so I’m making it a separate post.

I have talked about this before but I’ll talk again because I love talking about Cale’s complex emotional state.

More than pushing them away, Cale completely ignored his grief which has made him completely emotional constipated. This has lead to many side affects which get glossed over most of the time since we read the novel from Cale’s pov.

Some that I can remember from the top of my head right now are: dissociation, selective memory, depression, anxiety, stress and tons of physical problems like eating disorder, etc. which I’ll get into more another time. His self destructive tendencies based on the decisions he makes are all because of his emotional constipation.

Cale’s denial over his own symptoms has become chronic over the years even tho it’s fairly visible from other peoples perspective. Some instances I can remember where we see Cale’s condition from other peoples pov are: moments when Alberu tells him he’ll definitely get his slacker life, everyone’s reaction to him smiling after crying, Choi Han meeting younger Cale, the villains’ reaction when Cale gets angry, everyone telling him he’s too weak and skinny, Ron and Choi Han’s pov during side story 7 after Cale dreamed about CJS and LSH first death anniversary, etc. Everyone can recognize that he’s not well.

And about the venting on destroying stuff, that’s exactly correct. Many times when we see the fight from the other pov of the villain, most of the dialogue is about how angry and terrifying Cale looks. Of course part of that could be due to the effect of Dominating Aura, but they specifically mention Cale’s expression and the look in his eyes a lot. That’s what truly terrifies them. Cale doesn’t recognize this but he’s really expressive, everyone says that he’s very expressive and lets his emotions slip through his face.

Another case when he couldn’t control his emotions anymore was when he cried. An interesting fact is that people who aren’t used to crying and/or hold themselves back from crying, once they do actually cry they can’t stop the flow of tears and are motionless and/or rather calm and quiet. It’s that silent unstoppable crying that Cale displayed. His grief finally exploded after meeting LSH and he couldn’t understand the sadness he was feeling at that moment because the meeting ended with consolidation and relief. All the pain over the deaths of his best friends finally released.

That is a complete contrast to his reaction in side story 7 after the first anniversary of his team’s death. When he arrived home he just collapsed on the floor expressionless. Not once did he cry. But the way he collapsed at that moment said a lot about his state at the time. All the stress accumulated in his body from holding back his emotions all day today affected his physical health to total exhaustion

Actually in my opinion SS7 is one of the best chapters about examining Cale’s emotional state. There are multiple visible of him suppressing his emotions like: keeping a neutral expression all day around, refusing to mention what day it was tomorrow even though everyone knew, not closing his eyes in front of the grave because the memories would resurface, the small panic attack shown by his shortage of breath, background silence and feeling of heaviness, and you can see how burned out emotionally and physically he feels. The only way he wouldn’t feel these things was by working, as it is noted multiple times throughout the story that he never took days off.

And my favorite moment was when we see Cale waking up from the dream and very clearly experiencing signs of ptsd and a panic attack. He was feeling cold despite the entire house being heated with magic, cold sweat running down his face, shortage of breath as soon as he woke up and a distressed expression as shown from Ron and Choi Han’s pov He also felt the need to hear noises and pet the kids to make him feel a sense of attachment with reality since the silence in his memories made him feel suffocated. Tho Cale himself couldn’t recognize these symptoms.

That side story also shows how he has grown emotionally throughout the novel now becoming more emotionally open with others.

I can also go on about his selective memory, anxiety, get more into his self destructive lifestyle and about his obvious signs of depression during his team leader days and early part of the novel while touching on his childhood trauma, but this post is already long enough so I’ll leave those for another day.

Spoilers for Cales past and a ss of a few paragraphs of chapter 695

Cale hates when people sacrifice themselves. He hates when they push themselves too hard, especially for him.

Because that’s what happened with Lee Soo Hyuk and Choi Jung Soo, isn’t it?

Cale was supposed to die. They sacrificed themselves for him, and he lived, and now he gets visibly upset when people try to do things that are similar.

What does he think about when he sees people work themselves till they faint? It’s stupid. Not just because it’s not healthy, but because it’s sacrificial. He hates martyrs. He hates it when they’re his friends.

Cale has a weird complex, right? Sacrificing himself left and right, fainting, but not allowing anyone else to do the same? Hypocrite, right?

(Chapter 695)

This is weird, isn’t it? This complete lack of awareness is concerning! It’s almost as if he’s oblivious to the fact that he does the same thing all of the time!

To everyone else, yes, this situation with the crown Prince fainting after using all of his mana is a perfect parallel to Cale using his ancient powers too much and going into a coma.

But Cale doesn’t see his actions in the same light! He really isn’t trying to sacrifice himself 90% of the time! The collateral damage (fainting, bleeding, pain) is usually not part of his prediction, and if it is, it’s more than he expected.

His intentions and thoughts are always about keeping his friends safe, and he’s okay with coughing up a bit of blood to do that! Just a bit, maybe enough that it will look scary but it won’t hurt him in the long run and that’s okay.

If he faints? It wasn’t planned, so it’s not really sacrifice. Maybe a little but he’s selfish enough already, it’s the least he can do, honestly.

When Cale puts himself in danger it’s for selfish reasons. Self-declared selfishness, but that’s how he sees it.

Cale doesn’t sacrifice himself. Everything he does is because he chose to! He chose to. If it doesn’t hurt too bad, he doesn’t consider it as doing much at all. The level of pain he experiences in every situation is his way of determining how much he’s ‘accomplished against his will’ (sacrificed).

Not only that but there are circumstances he must be in to even consider it of consequence to other people. If it doesn’t happen while someone’s in danger, it doesn’t really matter, does it? He doesn’t understand why someone would be asking about his well-being. He doesn’t plan to let anything that happens affect his plans, so there’s no reason for them to worry.

If he’s not on a battlefield, all of the effort he puts in?

(ancient powers) (strengthening his friends) (being in pain and pushing through it) (planning and strategizing) (so, so much more)

It doesn’t count. He is familiar with meticulously and extensively optimizing his time, because as KRS, monsters attack indiscriminately. Being prepared and working hard to be strong is nothing when compared to the battle soon to come, therefore, it doesn’t count as “work.” It’s what is expected. It is the basic standard for what is required to survive.

Where everyone sees Cale working nonstop for weeks and months and years, it’s a normal weekend for him. Those days outside of battle don’t count. He worked like that for 15 years, so much stress is easy for him.

But- why doesn’t he recognize that he pushes himself until he faints? There’s a threshold that he passes where he faints, but he still keeps crossing it?

Well, because he’s the protagonist and- often, our only source of information for what happens in this world- narratively, he tends to stay awake and only faints when the battle is coming to a close, or has just closed. If the battle ends, his presence isn’t of vital importance, so it’s fine if he was unconscious for a little bit. Other times it’s involuntary and a result of his body’s terrible condition or outside forces.

He doesn’t recognize his fainting as sacrificial because as long as the battle ends on a good note and he’s still able to think and plan relatively soon after he wakes up, he hasn’t sacrificed much other than time. He also has Vitality of the Heart, which lets him feel rejuvenated after a ‘nap.’

You see, Cale Henituse is interesting. He doesn’t know how to distinguish being selfish and selfless because being selfless is, in itself, an act of selfishness. When Cale (from the perspective of his friends) ruins his health and runs from battle to battle without resting or thinking about his friends concern— it’s pretty selfish of him.

While everyone else considers him selfless, he thinks of himself as doing the “obvious” amount of work and being selfish too. That much work is expected of him, so it isn’t selfless. It’s all for his own gain, because when everything is over, he’ll be the one going away to slack off in a forest. Ha!He’s seven steps ahead of everyone (and on the verge of collapse).

How trashy.

So to answer the question? Cale doesn’t notice his own sacrifices because he feels that:

1) his intentions remain solely selfish, so fainting and coughing up blood is just something he needs to do to get closer towards his goal.

2) anything that occurs outside of battle does not count as sacrifice because it does not affect how his plans will pan out, and everything he does is just a normal amount of work for him.

3) fainting is not on his list of to-dos, it happens without his consent- constantly- and it is very annoying because it’s an unpredictable variable, but thankfully it happens when the battle is almost over/already over so it’s not really fainting. It’s like taking a nap! Involuntarily, but at least it’s sort of convenient.

4) being overly selfless is selfish, and selfish = bad, so Cale is a Bad Person and Complete Trash. Look at Cale, selfishly wanting his friends and his homeland to be safe so that he can retire. Bastard!

So, turns out his inability to realize the irony of his statements is because of the traumatizing 16 years of mental conditioning where pushing himself over the edge is normal and expected, spurred on by his socially isolated past that led to a lack of empathy and emotional awareness, and his two closest friends sacrificing themselves for him after his ability couldn’t predict the situation accurately enough.

Wow, it was the trauma all along…

€<><><><><>o

{>>>O=

^^^ my attempts at fish

Anyway, here is a compilation of my favorite Cale moments :D find it under the cut :3 they’re angsty :v spoilers ofc

Chapter 258 ^

Chapter 259 ^

Chapter 303 ^

Chapter 420 ^

Chapter 560 ^

Chapter 584 ^

Chapter 656 ^

I got the 'written animatic' idea from one of @blueteller 's stories so thank you for that-

This is pretty short btw

---

You are my sunshine

A close up shot of Raon in Cale's arms. You're unable to see Cale's face, only the bottom half. Raon is looking up at Cale as Cale sings to him.

My only sunshine

The background is light gold colors, everything is just the slightest bit fuzzy. It seems as though they're in Cale's bed. Raon feels warm.

You make me happy

Cale begins to pet Raon softly on his head.

When skies are gray

Raon snuggles into Cale's arms just a bit more

You'll never know, dear

As Raon is closing his eyes, we see Cale's mouth begin to shake a little.

How much I love you

Cale brings Raon into his arms in an embrace, the point of view gets closer to them and we see Cale's shoulders begin to shake

Please don't take

As the point of view backs away, the warm and gold background slowly fades into a battlefield.

My sunshine away

We see Cale hunched over Raon, the indestructible shield covering them, they're in the middle of a battlefield with some of their comrades fallen next to them. Some fighting is still going on in the background as the screen fades to black

---

Inspiration really does come to me in the weirdest of places-

I wrote this pretty quickly, please do keep in mind-

This is a fanfic on wattpad about cale replacing the white star and even though it doesn't have a lot of chapters it's so FUCKING GOOD I can't he's a manic little baby running wild and I love that for him

This would make for such an interesting fanfic

An Idea Orv x TCF

yoo joonghyuk as Choi Han

Someone should make a fanfic about this I would eat it tf up

Beacrox:*creates a spicy dish at Cales request(because Cale missed eating spicy things T^T)*

Cale:*tries it*hmmmm…. It’s good, but it could use some more spice.

Beacrox:*utter confusion* …yes young master-nim. *thinking that Cale might be insane because this is the spiciest dish he’s ever been in the presence of*

Beacrox:*adds more spice anyways because he’s so confused*

Cale: still needs more spice.

Beacrox:*worried confusion intensifies*

Beacrox:*adds more spice*

Cale: perfect.

Beacrox:*more worried confusion*

Later- *Beacrox enlists Eruhabens help to summon the whole Cale-nim protection squad*

Cale:*is summoned to his fathers office to find perhaps every person he’s ever met standing there with Choi Han looking perhaps as confused as he is*

Deruth: Son… are you feeling alright?

Cale:…yes…? What is this for..?

Beacrox:*puts the spicy dish on the desk*

Alberu: Dongsaeng, this is an intervention.

Deruth: we think something might be wrong with your taste buds.

Cale: huh? It’s not even that spicy? Try it if you don’t believe me?

Everyone in the room: *tries it and immediately starts dying(-Choi Han)*

Deruth: Dear God! That could kill a small cat!

Ohn: as a small cat, I can confirm, eating any more of that would kill me.

Cale: Oh come on! It isn’t that spicy!

Everyone:*confusion*

Choi Han:…

Choi Han:… it isn’t that bad…

Everyone:*appalled*

Alberu: You two are fucking anomalies. This is not something a human, or any race for that matter, can consume without horrible difficulty.

Cale:*walks over to the dish*

Cale:*eats the rest of it to not let it go to waste because it really does have the perfect amount of spice*

Everyone:*in utter terror as Cale shows zero reaction*

Alberu: I am terrified of you.

______________

Cale ／ \

(／ﾟ⁠ｰﾟ⁠)／ *responsibilities* Alberu

(⁠ʘ⁠ᗩ⁠ʘ⁠’⁠)!

Some random person: You made such a mess!! What do you have to say for yourself

Cale: Anything regarding this matter shall be dealt by my hyung-nim, the Crown Prince of Roan, our shining sun, Alberu Crossman

Who tf gave him drugs Σ⁠(⁠ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ⁠)

GOD HES SO-

Just some doodles I made during the school days