Karen Chasity - Tumblr Posts
church!
He’s a family friend but they definitely pity him
poll’s
uh just realize I forgot mark and Karen Chasity.
I will draw them later!
Kane and mark Chasity (and grace)
When I said later I lied I meant right now lol
MARK CHASITY THOUGHTS !!
thank you @biscuits-spooky-diner [ sorry for the tag again lol ] for reminding me w ur reblog i went fucking bananas w this LMAO
a lot of these are heavily headcanon-centric and i wanna preface that before i get into it bc i know some people may not agree!! thats fine!! i just like thinking these silly lil things
thoughts below the cut because its a Lot and i may add to this but idk?? shrugs we'll see
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starting off strong, i really am a sucker for the 'two [ or more ] characters that one actor/actress plays are related on some level' concept and i believe mark and duke are cousins bc CAN U IMAGINEE
theyre cousins on their moms sides but their moms dont really get along due to differing views and ways of parenting, but mark and duke are pretty close. theyre each others favourite cousin
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mark and karen are both gay in opposite directions but they were very close friends growing up due to overlapping social groups (their parents, church groups, most likely abstinence camp goers, etc), and because of their respective families and being unable to be true to themselves, they got married and had grace very early after they graduated highschool
mark loves karen very much, but purely platonically. he is the type to tease her, sometimes poke fun at her, and he respects her immensely! they both work insanely well as a duo, and they hold down the fort of their picket fence home extremely well, but they are not in love
he n karen live a very domestic life, they can even be pretty physically affectionate at times [ hugs, cuddling, kisses to the head, cheeks, hands even ] and share quick 'i love you's before separating for the day, but something about it was always just slightly askew from romantic love and affection
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circling back to highschool, mark and ted definitely had a secret on-again-off-again relationship for at least a few months to a year.
they inevitably fell out because ted was sick and tired of being kept as a secret [ i have so so many thoughts about the spankoffskis too dont get me started on that tho ] and ended up giving mark an ultimatum: either choose to stay with ted and become public, or choose his family and run away from himself
i think its clear which mark chose. they dont talk much anymore
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his middle name is anthony :33 no reason for this i just think it fits. mark anthony chasity :3333
he is a very sensitive man! growing up was extremely hard for him between an overbearing and coddling mother, and a hardassed and pushy father, and being heavily sheltered on top of it all
he wasnt shown a lot of genuine love and affection growing up (his mother would lovebomb him, his father didnt believe he needed it, and they were both pretty strict considering he was their only child) and he tries to do better with grace but still ends up unintentionally repeating cycles out of wanting to keep her 'safe'
he truly does love his daughter, he loves grace s o fucking much, but he n karen didnt have many positive role models to base themselves off of parenting-wise, therefore carrying a lot of fabricated truth into their relationships both separately and together with grace
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mark has an architecture degree and he would love to be an actual architect but alas. realty was what he could get into
hes the one in charge of most of the chasity homes interior decoration! he has an eye for colours n specifically he really enjoys pastels, but his favourite colour overall is actually green
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MARK CHASITY IS THE MARK FROM WORKIN BOYS [ getting forcefully pulled off stage, gripping the mic ] PLEASE P[LEASE JUSR HEAR ME OUT
before mark began working in realty, he worked at a bank. golden parachutes bank [ 'golden parachutes' is something mentioned in show stoppin number w like no context?? this concept is my gfs idea tho ] [ **I WAS INFORMED ITS A BUSINESS TERM but atp i feel like hatchetfield Would have a bank named after a business term lmfao ]
mark met greg through duke when he was about 20 or so [ I ALSO FIRMLYY BELIEVE THE GREG FROM WORKIN BOYS IS MAXS DAD BUT MY JÄGERMAN FAMILY TREE IS A WHOOOLEE OTHER CAN OF WORMS ], began seeing him, and greg was the one to bring mark into the polycule around 23-24
all of them worked at the bank! henry hidgens was one of the younger executives there
HIS N HENRYS DYNAMIC SPECIFICALLY was never sexual i believe, but it wasnt healthy overall because there was a power imbalance between them, and i also believe mark wouldve been one of the younger men in the polycule
henry and mark had a very 'wolf and lamb' dynamic, mark being perceived and treated as 'innocent' due to how he carries himself and how he was raised, and henry sometimes doing specific things to intimidate and even scare mark
all in all things do not go well. yeah. i am Not gonna get too deep into that bc it delves into pure indulgent au headcanon bullshit [ this entire post rlly lol ] but to shorten it: i believe mark to be a sole survivor of the workin boys incident in some aus and after the deaths of the boys he quits the banking job n goes into realty god bles
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coughs. anyway. he really likes historical art and i believe mark n grace are so similar in how theyre both So abnormal about historical things [ graces general interest and infatuation w the waylon place and its history that she basically infodumps about in npmd ]
he would infodump about historical pieces and their stories to anyone that would listen, which is usually his wife or daughter
SPEAKING of historical art n bringing back his architecture degree, when grace was around 10 mark built her an exactly-to-scale miniature replica of the waylon place as a dollhouse, down to the scaffolding, lighting, wall decor, etc
it took him years and was a complete surprise. it is his favourite and most pride-inducing project to date, even more bc it was for his baby
I have this headcanon that the LiB literally look like the actors in the summoning. Okay, that might not make sense, but stick with me?? Like, imagine that they literally look the same as the other characters they play in NPMD, and Steph, Pete and Grace can tell.
Pokey looks like Steph's Dad (Solomon)
Blinky looks like Ruth
Tinky and Nibbly look like Grace's parents
And Wiggly looks like Richie
I'm honestly not sure why the LiB would do this, but I feel like they would. Maybe to unsettle Steph, Pete and Grace by making the people they love and trust the most appear evil and dangerous??
Maybe it's the opposite of that, and they're appearing as people that they trust so they aren't immediately terrified of them?? (I don't think it's this one lol, I'm sure they love being feared)
And I also thought that maybe they appeared as Ruth, Richie and Solomon as a sort of guilt-trip seen as they were already killed by Max prior to the summoning, but then why would they appear as Grace's parents??
Or knowing the LiB, maybe it's just for funzies
Anyways, I think it's a fun headcanon and some food for the thought :D
Ramses' wheel-generated Hachetfield deathmatch
Round 1
Bout 8 (final bout)
Out final match-up for the first round.
I think what happens here is that one day Grace gets home and mentions a scandalous encounter with a scrappy, college age faux-greaser offering to carry her books. Come a few days later, Karen encounters Ethan at a grocery store and he overs to help her reach something at the back of a tall shelf and when she gets a good look at him, she realizes he's the same guy Grace mentioned and it's on.
Woman…
Hatchetfield Requests!
All of these are from Blinky's Rewatch Party Discord server.
Sorry, it's a long one lmao.
Hi there! I have not interacted much in the Hatchetfield fandom, but I've talked endlessly about Hatchetfield in the @blinkysrewatchparty discord server. My name is Egg and I have a problem. I'm obsessed with a side character. A side character named Karen Chasity.
Below is most of the contents of what is a five page document about how I interpret her as a character. A lot of it is headcanon, because we simply don't have enough information about her. Again, I have a problem. Enjoy.
My Karen Chasity Problem: How I approach Karen as a character. (SFW EDITION kinda.)
[Disclaimer: Within this document I discuss Karen’s interaction with characters such as Girl Jeri(from now on referred to as Jeri), Detective Shapiro (NPMD), and Doug(Mariah’s cop from TGWDLM). At the time of writing, I’ve written Karen in ships with these three, so there will be mention of each briefly, though it is not the main focus.]
Karen's main theme is first and foremost restraint.
To lesser extent there is also repression and control.
She is the most uptight/serious of all the Chasity household. (As evidenced in NPMD, she does not make jokes like Mark, nor does she fly off the handle like Grace)
This is not to say she is completely stone faced, she does have instances where she emotes quite a bit, but (in my opinion) it feels exaggerated for comedic effect (because it's a comedy musical/scene where her dang daughter is breaking apart)
Her conversation with just Mark about her concerns with Grace not acting her usual self says a lot here
She is obviously someone who cares for her loved ones, though she may not bring up those concerns with the person in question. She is caring, in a quiet way. In NPMD there is a time skip between Dirty Girl to Max's death to Grace waking up after Richie's death. We know that Grace has been acting off for at least that amount of time. This gives Karen a time frame to notice that change in behavior.
NPMD is a blip in the rest of their lives, time wise. I’m interested in the Karen Chasity that isn’t worrying over her daughter, the Karen Chasity that isn’t rife with paranoia during a townwide lockdown.
Karen’s secondary theme is devotion.
She is literally religious.
There is an argument for this if we do take into account the dinner scene with the Chasity household and how she nods along with Mark talking about the Holy Ghost, as well as how quick she checks Grace’s temperature. This is all also said by the above section.
While I choose not to use a character’s… characterization in musical numbers too much, it’s clear that Karen, without her restraint (In Hatchet Town), still cares deeply about her loved ones. Sure, she may be rife with paranoia in that song but she still emphasizes the safety of the children in her part. She still cares, even if in that song it’s far too much.
She gives to others far more than she gets back.
Maybe this entire thing is rendered moot by the above section. This isn’t a formal document, fuck it.
Karen's slight mid-west(?) accent popping out when she talks to Grace
This is more prominent when she tells Grace she's gonna be late to being early for school (emphasis on "oo" noises, elongation and shortening of syllables. Monophthongal [e:] and [o:] present in both minnesota and michigan among other places)
It’s probably because Hatchetfield is placed in Michigan, but no one else does this in the Hatchetfield universe. It could be another thing played up for comedy? I choose to see this as Karen playing up her maternal role. I could headcanon this as her drawing from her own mother?
If we go with this, this could reference back to the headcanon/idea of “Karen’s family was a big influence on herself and despite wanting to move away from that connection, Karen is someone very much from her background.”
The accent itself makes her sound different than from the initial Chasity household scene, maybe it’s just nothing idk.
“...beautiful old house” particularly has her pronouncing the “o” in old and house as more round and wide instead of that tighter “o” later on when she says “school”
Potentially trans-atlantic accent during first Chasity scene in NPMD (the fuck am I saying)
Mark kinda does this too, could be just vocal direction being older film for that more “classic nuclear family” feel
Consistently speaks kind of sing-songy in the show, though I don’t prescribe to that being her natural speaking tone.
(quick aside: you could probably replace Curt and Kim with muppet versions of themselves as the Chasitys and it wouldn’t change anything about the show, it would be funny)
Okay let’s move on from the fucking voice thing
We know very little about the Chasitys aside from Grace, but that’s because she’s appeared the most out of all of them.
Therefore, I am playing fast and loose with how I characterize Karen.
I write her as a queer woman, who has been closeted for a very long time.
So Karen is restrained.
An entire theme with the Chasitys is their repression due to religion. It’s not hard to simply write any of them as extremely closeted because of this.
Therefore, Karen is uptight.
The stressors of maintaining the image of a heterosexual, pure, Christian woman on a day to day basis would grate on anyone, especially if they are queer. Any singular slip up in a community like a church the Chasitys go to, could mean social death.
Karen’s humor is subtle.
She doesn’t outwardly make jokes like Mark, or has unhinged, comedic reactions like Grace. If anything, Karen is the straight man in the comedy of the Chasity household. She is the baseline Mark and Grace work off of, stable and secure.
When writing Karen I tend to make her a little more deadpan than canon. She is such an over the top character in NPMD, it’s hard for me to write that in a believable way. I tend to make characters a little more grounded. If a musical is loud and bright, I’m writing them in a stage play, or a movie.
Because of this, I’m taking that one Smokey the Bear line from Abstinence Camp and saying Karen said that in the most deadpan voice that Grace simply did not realize it was a joke.
Karen has body language tells
We see her wringing her hands together as she walks toward Mark in NPMD, expressing her concern for Grace.
Furthermore, she nods quietly and hums when listening to others(Chasity dinner table conversation, Grace bedroom conversation, etc.)
I like to imagine that while she might be “playing a role” as a mother/church woman/pristine Chasity she still exemplifies some of these bodily tells. Just in a more restrained way. She pulls toward her own body instead of gesturing outward. In NPMD she leans and curls in on herself, to present more demure.
In my own writing, I contrast this with how she acts outside of the context of her church, or with Grace. Because I see her and Mark as mutual beards, as best friends, she is able to drop that facade of a demure housewife and stand straighter(lol) and taller. Her shoulders are not hunched in on themselves, they are pushed back. What we see in NPMD is a role she plays in her day to day, but is not necessarily her authentic self.
Again this is like heavy headcanon and this is also the SFW version of the document sorry guys you have to be at least 18 to get the full context lmao tough shit
Karen is someone who says a lot with her hands(and to an extent, her eyes), Even as someone who may not gesture overtly. She holds them together, points, accents her speech with them. Karen's hands are the way she interacts with the world when she doesn't verbally talk much.
Karen is controlling.
Maybe this feels a little obvious. She is controlling with herself and how she presents herself. She is caught in a web of her own making, and this can extend to who she associates herself with. If this becomes too much it’s horribly unhealthy. It is the fear of her truths coming out that keep her from going too far.
This manifests with how she approaches Jeri at first, and how she starts making packed lunches for Doug and Shapiro. It’s a sliding scale of when control is acceptable.
As well as volunteering for church business and around town. Karen is a busy woman because if she is left idle she doesn’t know what else to do. She does not know how to relax.
Karen is afraid.
Her repression and restraint stem from the fear of ostracization. From her church, her community, and her own family.
While I’m operating on the idea of her and Mark being mutual beards (their marriage being a lavender one) I imagine she is afraid of the way Grace would react if she found out her mother -someone whom Grace obviously looks toward for guidance and help- is queer.
The same goes for her church. She’s presented herself as a heterosexual woman for so long (due to her and Mark’s safety as two queer people coming from conservative families) that she is stuck in that role. She immerses herself in aforementioned church activities and volunteer work to maintain that label, and that level of safety.