we saw "event with no alex ships" and said "what if laurens was fucked up and kissed everyone": the fic
@my-deer-friend here they are, please do not die! apologies for the very inconsistent writing style in this post
tragic backstory + context
Laurens is plural, because we said so. When they were children, the primary fronter (in essence, the guy who is there most of the time) was "Jackie Blue" <- this is a nickname, he just thinks of himself as John because he thinks he's the Real John Laurens. They became aware of Eleanor (yes, she named herself after her mother) around the age of twelve. Eleanor is very opinionated and goes after what she wants, we love to see it.
so for a while it was mostly eleanor and jackie blue and a couple other fragments & selves, and they had a whole plan about their future, they knew what was going to happen and everything was going to go well and they would be happy forever!
Then their mother died and everything went to shit. Jackie became selectively mute, Eleanor tried to Handle Everything but masking is very hard for her and she got so stressed she was dormant for about a year, and they formed a guy who calls himself "the prisoner" and had a nonstop existentialist breakdown for months. Eventually their father decided that his son had been grieving intensely for too long now and basically told them they needed to shape up and get it together.
To that end, they have J (this is also a nickname because he also thinks he's the Real John Laurens). He's normal! He's fine! He got them through college and into a career and out to their family! He's keeping all his emotions right here and then one day he'll die gotten over everything bad that's ever happened to him!
(J remembers enough things to think his life is normal / not notice major gaps, but not enough things to remember that the others exist. jackie & eleanor still front occasionally for much of this period of time but he does not know this. no he doesn't remember most of his childhood why would you ask)
(jackie thinks that j is an impostor who stole his life. eleanor hates him because he diverged from the plan that she & jackie made before their mother's death and she really wanted those things)
when the fic starts, however, j has just had a fight with henry laurens, because even literally having been made to be a son he could approve of wasn't good enough to keep the peace. so they are not talking, so j is upset but trying to pretend he isn't and the others are more often in front for significant periods of time.
thaurens
they fell in love in college and have been together for. a while. we don't actually have a good timeline for this au yet, haven't even figured out what jobs everyone has
their relationship is often pretty sincerely tender and affectionate! they are comfortable in each other's presence and always kiss goodnight and j makes thomas breakfast and they slow dance in the kitchen. they take weekend trips (thomas does not like hiking or anything Outdoorsy in general but will do it for him. in return j tolerates going to france once or twice a year). like it's important, for the rest of this au, that there is a meaningful amount of love there
unfortunately there's also this fundamental tension there, because thomas likes J, who is, to the others, that guy who gets everything because the rest of us are fundamentally unloveable, and J himself is performing a lot of the time
(there was a while in college when J was having a rough couple of weeks and thomas gradually stopped talking to him until he was more mentally stable, and although this was a long time ago J sort of never got over that)
Thomas doesn't like when people are weird or crazy, and they are as a collective pretty weird and crazy, so even before any of the others try to directly interact with him they have a sense that they will not be welcomed.
(this is confirmed when jackie, who is trying his best, hands thomas a note saying that he can't talk right now but everything is fine and he's going to make dinner, and thomas goes "what the fuck, what's wrong with you?")
(In general Thomas doesn't deal well with them having brain problems, because he does not like not knowing what to do & feels betrayed because of J's very collected image. he wants his normal boyfriend back, he does not want this weirdo with his notes and his makeup and his singing and his strange, hollowed eyes. he says something to this effect to eleanor's face and she almost hits him)
laurens & eliza
Yeah, so, remember a few paragraphs ago when we talked about Eleanor & Jackie Blue having planned out their entire life? Part of this plan was "marry our best friend Eliza, who Jackie trusts more than anyone else in the world and with whom Eleanor fell in love the first time they met"
(plural love at first sight is such a strong emotion you guys don't even know. remembering who this person is and all of their good qualities that your other selves have experienced and recontextualizing them through your personality and going oh. oh.)
Before their mother's death, Laurens & Eliza were not Officially Dating or anything, they did not kiss, but they were very physically affectionate and it was sort of. understood that this was a high-commitment relationship that wasn't going to go away. they never talked about their future or about dating and eliza did date other people but there was something unspoken and intimate and strong between them
J mostly put a stop to this by coming out as gay. He and Eliza are friends but that intensity is mostly gone. They didn't talk for about a year after their mother died & Eliza attributes their distance to that but also still kind of loves them
she doesn't pine, exactly. but it's a source of wistful melancholy for her and she often wonders if things could have been different
(eleanor still loves her so much it feels like being set on fire)
laurens & burr
J likes Aaron but is very much in denial about it. They're normal friends and he has a boyfriend anyway and it doesn't matter, so he's not going to think about the way he feels when Aaron says his name.
aaron fell in love with J after he & thomas were already dating, so he never really had any hope that this would work out. and that's fine! he's fine. it's fine that they'll never hold hands and it's fine that he'll never get to hold him at night and it's fine that thomas fucking jefferson has everything and doesn't even appreciate it. he's fine.
(aaron would probably not have hated thomas if thomas were more supportive. he would have settled for quietly resenting him. but aaron said once (in a friend way and not in a gay way) that laurens would look good in eyeliner, and j said something back about how thomas wouldn't like it, and aaron hummed noncommitally and decided to hate him forever.)
eleanor likes him a lot but isn't super obsessive about her romantic interest in him. she does, however, unmask slightly more than average around him, which is part of why aaron notices first. (the rest of it is-- nothing, don't worry about it, he's fine and doesn't love them it's fine).
he's very worried about J but doesn't know how to help him so he settles for being very very observant and not being a dick to the others
(jackie writes i can't talk right now and aaron says "okay. do you want to play chess?" aaron beats him at chess and jackie writes i'm not the person you know and aaron shrugs, thinks i figured, and says "that's fine". and it is, really. he'd love them in any universe. he loves them whoever they are. there is nothing they could do to put him off. and a few minutes later jackie almost touches his hand but clearly thinks better of it and it's fine, he's fine, he's fucking fine)
