uhm. Would anyone be interested in a fic of Pantalone getting to know/winning over 25..... I just started working on it but.i have thoughts on them.its interesting to me that 25 would be the oldest version of Dottore that hadnt had Pantalone's companionship in his life (& as such, also the oldest segment age that Pantalone had never personally seen the original at. I think that alone would deeply interest Pantalone.) Also, in my mind, 25 would be the second ever segment made (after 35 being made first) so it'd be Pantalone's first ever look at a younger Dottore at all in that case.
& just ranting about 25 here: I think 25 is also arguably one of the more 'despondent' segments in a sense (in as 'despondent' as Dottore can openly be(?)).I mean, he's presumably spent enough time with the Fatui that he's settled in a bit, so he's had more time with the freedom (isolation) of being left completely alone and autonomous in his research, and with more time distancing him from the Sumeru era of his life, and yet with NO time having a Pantalone force in his life. Aside from subordinates and like, MAYBE Pierro??, his life is literally 100% expirements and no one actually close to him. While do I think he's still somewhat quippy and communicative (shoutout to the unprompted "I hope they're in HR" from the tree marrow and also him just talking a fair amount iirc,) at this point he's had no one close in his life & he has NO reason to assume that there will ever be anyone. And 25 is the last segment of Dottore who still lives with that belief completely unshaken (not to say that Zandik ever believed that he WASNT alone post Pantalone, since that man has Issues., but at least segments 35+ had that connection to analyze) & 25 has no precedent to assume that this permanant distance is anything but How Life Will Forever Be For Him. There's no point in wasting energy trying to breech the gap when people only despise him. (I mean don't get me wrong, he's not some tired defeatist little meow meow with observable depression or something (he's still smug and self assured in the way Omega is, and I think he's also still prickly and irritable like 18, even if he's more careful and repressed about it) But he's cold & used to the cold in turn I think)
And then. 25 year old Zandik wakes up as a segment, and he's in a new lab and there's two other versions of himself there (OG Zandik and Omega). and he learns he's a segment (which, okay, interesting. 25 sees the logic and he approves) but also, there's obviously been some changes since he was around. Like Pantalone. APPARENTLY he was originally a test subject, then subordinate (already 25 is deeply suspicious how any version of himself could be talked into sparing a test subject, much less by the subject themself. Hes very doubtful) and now apparently he's a harbinger and the one he has to go to for funding (????!?!?????). He's also close business partners with Dottore, reportedly has shared goals (??????), and both versions of himself vouches for this random stranger. 25 remains unconvinced and his doubtful suspicion of Pantalone continues even after he meets the man. However . Pantalone is too curious to give up and is still as intrigued by this version of Dottore as he is the others. (And yes obviously 25 soon understands why all his other versions are so fixated on this guy) (And I have thoughts on Pantalone's thoughts and observations about 25 (and how that fits into Pantalone's view of Zandik and also how it affects their relationship) too, but that's also what the fic will explore hopefully!!!!)