Ok, this is going to be a niche question. So, in vignet 35 of It's not love I swear Francis says: "Two out of five of us bit it in their twenties!". Five- not six. I assumed he was excluding Richard from the count (he and Bunny are the unwilling outsider-insiders of the group but Bunny is counted in the dead, so). Then in The illusion of a greek necessity is Richard that says: "We studied classics together, five of us. Francis and Camilla, and her brother Charles, and then Henry and Bunny Corcoran. I was the new join that year.” Five again. But it's strange(r) because he includes himself ("us") in the five and then proceed listing his -again- five friends. I guess Richard knows he was never really accepted in the gang, or maybe it's a subconscious attempt at erasing Bunny from the narrative and from his memory, and then having to slip him in to justify his whole discourse. I guess it's funny the slip-ups happened in both universes (not funny for Richard tho) and I wanted to hear your reasoning behind it.
Plus I'd like to know more about the new gen, they seem an hilarious nightmare bunch of parental issues.
Great work, as always.
i love a niche question!!
in vignette 35 francis is definitely excluding richard from the count lol- i know, harsh! but it's also just slightly incorrect speech where like because he's speaking to richard he's referring to the rest of the group as us, even though obviously richard is in there too. i just like to torture richard via subconscious othering. given the context of the conversation francis isn't doing it on purpose.
as to illusion of a greek necessity i actually don't remember but logically i think probably i meant bunny because i think depending on what he's thinking about richard kind falls into an Us and Bunny thing due to. yknow. plot.
LOVEE to discuss the next gen. there are 3 of them in my mind. not all of them necessarily exist in the same universe but let's say they do. for funsies. as follows:
cecilia/celia/cece: everyone cheer for cece, who has in fact appeared in my fic before bc i like the idea of her so much. francis and priscilla's only child. very Over It rich socialite teen of the early aughts who is working very hard on making herself teflon despite her insecurities. pretty difficult relationship with both of her parents but they're not not close and the dysfunction goes mostly unacknowledged / she gets a lot of money thrown at her whims. she looks a lot like priscilla and everyone takes her to be much more her child than francis', but she shares a lot of neuroses (and a sharp tongue) with her dad. sees blair waldorf as aspirational. probably nicer than she would like to let on but not exactly nice. i think she has sort of a vintage gemma ward or amanda seyfried look going.
mateo/matty: judy poovey's intensely LA kid. his parents split when he was very young so he's grown up as a 2-home child volleying back and forth between them. also very spoilt and 2 cool 4 school but in a different vein to cece. he's like a little skater boy who grew up around hollywood people so he's very blasé. judy's not necessarily a great Parent (she is very much making her career happen and also still a party girl) but she is a pretty decent mom and is, unfortunately, a total boymom. the dad is fine but very hollywood (he's like a middling actor or maybe a tv presenter or something) and probably has a second family. mateo's more withdrawn and less of an extrovert than either of his parents & listens basically exclusively to rap music whilst feeling like eminem Gets him. he's not a teen rebel though bc he can't be bothered and also judy is pretty lax with a lot of stuff.
?george: charles' son with his post timeskip girlfriend who he owns the bar with. he's named after the twins' father but i've not decided what that name will be. unfortunately for him both of his parents are Serious alcoholics rather than Fun addicts like the entire rest of the cast and we know charles is violently abusive so Not Great for him. depending on the universe i think he actually is raised by camilla for some time. i try not to demonize charles excessively though so i think he definitely has better periods and particularly when george is little both of his parents are trying very hard to keep it together so they have some good aspects to their relationship. but unfortunately overall i think he has the worst time of it. they're also not very financially stable so he doesn't even get the gilded cage of the other 2. he's a very timid, sickly sort of guy and probably kind of à la andy in goldfinch but without the ego. early 2000s shonen anime is huge for him.
there's a whole extra thing about their hypothetical relationships to each other and the others in the cast (richard in particular) but i'll save that for another time.