I keep thinking about the weird weird dynamic J, N, and V have where they're like roomates, coworkers, family, and lovers at the same time, and how that affects their relationship and intimacy. I'm not saying they're LITERAL family but their whole dynamic is so messy and awkward and interesting, and I imagine it's a nightmare to navigate
They have a VERY strange relationship with one another for sure which is such a fascinating thing about them.
They're these 3 random people brought back from the dead with no memory of their previous lives, just put into an abusive traumatic situation day one, living under the same roof being abused by the same authorities who also happen to be the parents of the person who's virtually their owner (that they don't seem to see as a mother or sibling or anything, they're just like her companions?), which is a position adjacent to adoptive siblings
But they're not, because the higher authorities (including Tessa, even if she doesn't leverage power of them, she's still a human and drones are lesser) don't view any of them as their children, they're robots so obviously there's no biology, and so it comes down to how they personally view one another. Which isn't siblings most obviously because two of them have romantic feelings for one another. J takes on the role by Liam's words (forget the exact phrasing) as like similar to an oldest sister in that she's the bossiest and stepped up to keep the 3 together, but there's nothing to lead anyone to believe she sees herself as a sister, they don't view her that way either.
Then they're like coworkers and "roommates" against their will (if a broken ship under a corpse tower is close enough to a home) and care for one another (dysfunctionally), N and V still have this like broken romance hanging over them and a wedge of distance where they can't even really be friends, J is their boss and authority and seen as such, she can't get close to them, doesn't talk about them like they're friends really just talks about them like subordinates and all this time ofc it feels like that's all she sees them as.
But then in her own world she's viewing them as family, in a double meaning sense of like "company family" which is still she's the Boss, but like personal emotional family as well, like defining family not as "people I'm related to" but people she loves who are a built in part of her life and world and have always been there
Can we even say "chosen family" if she didn't even choose them, none had a choice in the matter, they're a set stuck together. But they've made some kind of choice that's different than "well this is my [biological/adoptive] family whether I like it or not may as well love them" which would be the sibling trope, but no it's different it's like, a pretty willing acceptance they all have that they are each other's people and wanting it to stay that way. J being particularly fascinating, because yeah we can like "well N and V wanna romantically be together so ofc they accept it" but they also are accepting J as being there as part of their companion pack and ALSO pretty enthusiastically accepting her as their boss
And meanwhile she could be like, this is hell I have to put up with these people. It's hell I'm responsible for them. She puts that front on a little bit at least with N. But no she's like. I'm their leader and I need to keep us united and it hurts to lie to my family. Family being defined here as.. loved ones if she were willing to admit it, I guess, but otherwise companions that sort of belong to her. Or maybe she sort of wishes they did instead of them all belonging to Cyn in a malignant way.
It's complicated and weird and unconventional. Hard to label. They're a unit. Their survival has been with and depends on each other. They've been isolated from everyone but each other. Their job is to kill basically anyone who isn't them. "Family" is .. some way to label something that horrible held together by a level of care for one another they can't even show because bad things might happen. Strangles my heart that evidently they go to sleep next to each other perhaps like bats but they may as well be sharing a bed, even though they're trying to be distant.
Ugh it's so fucked up and tragic yet cute and potentially beautiful if J can be reunited and they're a complete set again. It's so clear that in spite of the way their strange relationship formed, they like it that way. Which sounds like it should be unhealthy, but after escaping the abusive N and V have clearly ended up happy staying together and they treat each other wonderfully. The love was there and it always was. It's been made clear it's there for J too and if she can just get her shit together she can be with them again, finally FINALLY with no one forcing her hand to hurt them.
Obsessed with them. I love them so much and their fucked up thing. I'd sell my soul for a render or short where they're like cuddling or something even if it's like J acting grouchy in the middle and V looks smug about pissing J off and N's like -^_^-
Kind of sleepy writing this idk if it's coherent (got up for an early doctors appointment, going back to sleep soon ehfjek)
