You know what I really love? Lucien knows how Elain really feels. Every one else only sees her how SHE wants them to see her. A lot of people have a very perfect, prim vision of Elain. I want to see her become MESSY over Lucien. In a good way, not a bad way. Like she’s so ladylike, she can be a little depraved, a little wicked, as a treat. She can’t hide her true feelings, both good and bad, from him. And I think that’s why she’s so weary of him.
Like, imagine being so usually well composed and not being able to hide your desire, how shockingly strong it is, from a man you basically just met.
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Marisha's comment about how Relvin is one of those parents who ended up with a child they didn't know what to do with really gets to the heart of it, i think, and is such a good way to tie the fantasy element of Imogen's powers into things more tangible. because there are really a lot of parents like Relvin in real life, who have a child with the person they're happily married to and never expect to be left alone with the kid. or who expect a ""normal"" (read: cisgender and heterosexual, able-bodied, relatively neurotypical and obedient, etc.) child and end up with one who's ""difficult"", who demands more or different of them than what they believe they signed up for. and that's not entirely entitlement on a parent's part- many cultures' common frameworks of parenthood and child-rearing do not include space for these children. it makes sense that Relvin was unprepared. raising any child is difficult, and raising a child whose needs you were never taught how to accommodate, who the world is so cruel to, is even more challenging.
and yet. and yet, the person who bears the brunt of the harm in these situations will always be the child. they're the ones who have to live every moment of how the world treats them, without the support that their parent is supposed to provide them. and when asked to care for his child even when she turned out to be ""difficult"", Relvin couldn't. for entirely sympathetic reasons, of course. he tried, in his own way. i don't think he's a bad guy. but he's let his own broken heart bleed onto his daughter. he hasn't been able to give her much else.
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Fox will later blame the entire conversation on the fruity green drink that Commander Bly had brought him from the bar, without his input.
"I miss hanging out with Alpha-Seventeen."
It smells malty, tastes sweet, and after three sips makes his mouth numb and tingly enough that he barely realises he’s said anything out loud until he notes that all eyes have turned to him.
Three CC-class clones he has only interacted with in a professional capacity outside of Kamino, and knows by reputation, mostly.
Commanders Cody, Bly and Doom had been kind to invite him to their table when they caught sight of him alone by the bar nursing a beer that was probably closer related to piss than alcohol.
"You used to hang out with Alpha-Seventeen?" Commander Doom is incredulous, Commander Bly is indignant.
"What? We never got to hang out with Alpha-Seventeen-"
Fox takes a few moments to consider lying, making out that he had a revered connection with the most admired trainer on Kamino. The little thrill of pleasure it would give him to obfuscate an undignified truth that no one had to know.
The open expression on Commander Bly's face stalls the urge. He thinks about the numb, yawning distance he has trapped himself behind, and the joylessness of being dignified. Of all the silly little things that no one will ever know about him when he dies, because he had never told anyone.
He interrupts.
"Well. By hang out I mean in my seventh cycle I would sit outside his door for an hour every evening,” he has another tingling sip of green juice to fortify him, and catches Commander Cody’s eyes deliberately “and tell him that if I was graded lower than you in the marksmanship exam, then I would strangle you to death in your bunk."
Bly laughs, startled, and beside him Commander Cody doesn't show any offense, but does raise his eyebrows as he sips his pink lemon drink, holding the sparkly decorative cocktail stick out of the way with his forefinger.
Fox eyes his non-response, and registers in himself a prickle of disappointment. He will examine it later, he assures himself, when the green juice has worn off.
"Did he ever talk back?" Commander Doom leans back against the sticky vinyl seating in the booth, and watches Fox's face the same way Fox has been watching theirs. He thinks he likes Commander Doom.
"No, i think he just started putting headphones in and taking a nap or something. I stopped eventually." there’s a shadow of a smile, which as far as Fox has been able to put together about the man is as good as a chuckle.
Commander Bly is far more ready with a grin.
"Fox, that’s not hanging out. That’s a symptom of something being very wrong. With you."
Fox, he thinks to himself. He had progressed to friendly address with Comman- with Bly, at least. It was promising.
"Yeah, i had no friends. He never told me not to strangle you though, Commander,” Fox twist the corner of his mouth in a wry smile, to hammer home to Commander Cody that there’s no intent behind the joke, even as he needles for a response, ”just want to emphasize that. I considered it."
"Why? I don't think we ever even spoke as cadets." the eyebrows are raised again, and still Fox can’t get a read on his expression
"Oh no, yeah, we didn't. I only knew you existed because you broke my record score in the flightsim in our fifth cycle and I swore revenge. You bastard. "
"This is why you didn’t have any friends, then?"
"Yeah. Pretty much, yeah. I worked on it."
"Do you still want to strangle me to death?"
"Hm. Remind me what your marksmanship score was in cycle seven, and i'll get back to you."
Commander Cody laughs, and the smile that breaks across his face is as much a relief as it is a victory. Fox lets the tension in his shoulders ease and rocks with the playful punch to the arm from Bly, barely rescuing the remaining half of his drink.
Later, he will blame the green juice for the small, real smile that wont leave his face for the rest of the night, when the three Commanders insist he drop formality and call them by name, for force’s sake, relax, and when he tests the water with a trivial gripe about paperwork and is met instantly with sympathetic noises and agreements, he feels on a firm footing at last.
See, he can make friends just fine, Stone.
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I really feel for the anime onlys who are either about to or have already hopped over to the manga to get caught up, because I’ve seen posts already of people being surprised and upset, and I feel so bad.
like…jjk is not a happy series. I know for me, I started reading just before the culling games and I expected the situations these characters are in to get better and for there to be happier moments and I was surprised. Things kinda don’t get better for these characters and oftentimes it feels like it just gets worse and worse. There’s positive moments, yes, and we get short bits of reprieve and the fights, the domains (I could go off for days on Hakari and Higuruma and Takaba’s), and the characters are so awesome but, admittedly, it’s not a happy series.
It’s about death, and fighting, and families, and dealing with loss, and generational curses and trauma, and so much more. And I know for me it hit me late that this series is deep and heavy—in fact, I wrote a post (spoilers) about delayed grief in this series bc I don’t think I personally realized how heavy this series is until later on because we lose so many folks and so much happens back to back, and there wasn’t time to truly process how much happens. But that said, it’s truly it’s one of the things I love most about jjk and what, to me, makes it unique along with other elements of this series.
idk I’m rambling but idk…anime onlys who are planning to read the manga, I highly recommend reading it, but I’ll say it how I say when people ask me IRL: “I recommend it with an asterisk and here’s why…”. I recommend it with a small warning to be prepared because it’s a lot and this series will make you feel hopeless for these characters at times and make you sad and angry and a myriad of emotions. It’s a wonderful series but it comes with a lot of heaviness.
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