OOF so I’ve been thinking abt what might have happened if James really had died during pyrite and I can’t focus on one idea??? Like aleks being this ruthless, emotionless mob boss whose only soft moments are when he cries alone in his room with some brandy before he sleeps and dreams about his first and only love, or aleks becomes an emotional wreck and eventually burns himself out but takes a majority of the city out with him — I was just wondering if u had thought abt it lol
first of all how very much dare u we all kno that the cardinal cockbite rule is that no one dies in the end
BUT i will go with an au where aleks doesnt find out that james survived! in that au i think it would be somewhere in the middle? aleks really does have a hard time getting over james. not just because he was half in love with him, but because he felt so goddamn guilty. it really would shake his self confidence. he does harden up i think, takes more after gavin than even gavin would prefer. he never wanted his kind of life for aleks, but he’s not going to turn him away if he wants to join them. aleks would takea heavier role in fake activity, until he makes his own name for himself - not the diamond of los santos, but the death cheater, the one who seems to always get away, who is maybe even luckier than his golden guardian. they call him immortal.
and who knows. maybe immortal and nova will run into each other again one day. but if they do, it wont be the soft, sarcastic boy james met when aleks was young and naive. THAT person has been locked down. it would be a true diamond, hard and unbreakable and beautiful for all that it’s led to more death than it shows.
then again, maybe james wouldnt be the same person ether.