wild times in the spare change fandom
(there is canonically rpf, the landscape of which changed over the course of the band’s existence, the original popular pairing of which was Bridie x Cardinal with Ishani x Leon as a secondary pairing. They’re obviously not “canon” but with none of them having public statements out regarding their sexualities I understand where they’re drawing the chemistry from, similarly in a meta way, in some delusional future in which i am famous, I would also understand the context in which someone would want to ship that. There was slash fic at this time but the gay ships got more popular the longer the band existed and there were more interviews to pull from and the four of them just got more comfortable joking with each other about stuff like that.
I’d like to go on a small tangent about Leon because in a bizarre turn of events he has slowly marinated some flavour while i wasn’t looking and now I have things to say about him. I think he gets treated similarly to the way that Hozier is treated. “WHY DOES HE DRIVE THE GOLF CART LIKE THAT IM CRYINGGGGGGG 😭😭😭”
especially the way that people lose their minds over those angelic back lit live photos
Though with Hozier ppl are like ‘shout out to hozier for inventing love’, (talking about his lyricism) but that doesn’t happen with Leon because he doesn’t write the lyrics to the songs — although Vivian thinks that he should. Instead it’s about the things that he says in interviews and the weird existential poetic shit that he says far too offhandedly for comfort. He ended up getting banned from talking in interviews bc he kept turning simple questions into anxious musings about the universe and no one knew how to move on from it.
‘You know, and I wonder sometimes if any of it really matters. In a world reclaimed by plants, would anything that I’ve done last? Soil gunking up the inside of cassette tapes and that. My single bass line, the last thing left of me, would be silently stored on the millions of records it was printed into, never to be played again. And then I wonder if I have any right to worry about it at all. I think it’s selfish in a way, to care about a legacy.’
‘Leon the question was do you have a favourite guitar that you own.’
‘Oh.’
he was mad about getting banned for a while until an alternative type culture show requested an interview with him and he and the interviewer just sat on the floor on sequinned pillows and spoke at length about that kind of philosophical stuff and the fans lost their fucking shit let me tell you. VCR’ed to death. and then there were copies made of the copies bc everyone needed their own copy. following the collapse of the band it eventually was reincarnated (2011) into who could get the most artistic generation loss coupled with super distorted and slowed spare change music something something metaphor for corruption. idk he found out about it later and was like. you know what. it was very traumatic but yeah this is comforting in a very weird way.
side note he’d be number 1 vance joy listener on spotify
anyway
There was a series of some sort that he was extremely invested in (which i haven’t invented the barest trace of a premise for yet.) and was later the appointed president of the local fan club for it, after being a loyal submitter of fanfic for the zine for several years. and oh yeah baby we’re on some trekkie type shit here. Leon Barta most prolific slash fic writer in the whole prefecture.
this is the early 90s btw. he changed mediums with the dawn of the internet. i’ll explain the way the trallum internet works later but he had a personal page that linked from the main fanclub page (think old geocities/neocities) where he posted his work. That page was later taken down as spare change began to pick up traction and someone found it and panic ensued as he didn’t remember the login to it and he was freaking out so badly that he convinced dick to call the admin people at The Internet to get it taken down from the other end (damage control now, ask questions later). neglected to mention what was actually ON the page tho
Ishani figured it out pretty quickly though and maintained her poker face honourably but broke down the end.
She knew because she was his long suffering editor and spent time in the public library with him while he built the website in the first place.
Their high school time was strange. they both identified as lesbians at that time for context and both agreed with the concept of ‘yes i am a lesbian but i do not like the concept of participating in lesbian sex. maybe I’m just lying to myself’. fast forward eeerereewwewewewweeerrrreeeupp. asexual lesbian and straight trans man. it all made sense to them in retrospect but at the time ishani spent most of her time being endlessly frustrated at anything and everything to distract from the main issue (complicated feelings too messy for her to want to deal with. Very heteronormative in that it’s a given that she’d marry a man, but that’s a deep issue in conflicts between culture and scripture and victorian colonisation and she really just wants to get through school with good grades right now. unpacks it later in her 20s but using aimless frustration as a coping mechanism with being uncomfortable never went away which is again a problem in itself) and leon had some kind of weird guilt complex over being a lesbian but writing purely about men fucking other men.
sorry side tangent
there was considerable public jealousy of bridie when she and leon announced they were together (mostly the leon fan folk who were angry they couldn’t get with him and also are fourteen and need to get some sleep bc they have school tomorrow). and then natural follow up is oh okay so cardinal x ishani.
C: oh no we’re just friends :)
I: EW no he’s gross look at him. he is like a brother to me. a gross yuck BROTHER. EW. why the fuck would i be in love with him that’s disgusting
C: :( :( man i thought you loved me :( u were literally the best guest at my wedding
I: SHIT MAN I AM SO SORRY. i do love you. you;re still objectively gross tho.
C; yeah okay fair enough
i must confess also that Leon’s entire character was originally based off the specific look that peter hook makes at 5:14 in the perfect kiss music video after playing the drums while their actual drummer is playing a keyboard with one finger like he;s trying to laser it with his eyes and their singer is going wild with a cowbell.
he’s not like that anymore tho he buys plants from the hardware store and is convinced that if he thinks too many bad vibes they will die and also keeps a sourdough starter and has to feed it and bridie refers to it as ‘the beast’
the following is a bunch of pictures that i imagine their house looks like
t4t adhd stoner + chronically anxious and plagued with visions
thank you thank you i’m here all night