di(saster)

And weirdly enough you’re really good at this: making pizzas and dealing with shitty customers and breaking up fights in the parking lot and pretending to be Duncan’s cousin on the phone so the utility company doesn’t cut off the power. But running a store is a lot of work for two dumb kids, so slowly you start accumulating a bunch of competent weirdos to help out, like the nun who left her convent because god told her to help you make pizzas, and the elderly school teacher who just survived a mass shooting, and the guy the papa johns down the street hired to run you over. And really there’s no way any of this should be working as well as it is - you’re absolutely committing fraud of some kind here - but you’ve managed to dodge the landlord every time he’s stopped by, and the health inspector never shows up to tell you to stop letting your dog hang out behind the counter and you’re all still kinda looking at each other and asking ‘are we allowed to just do this?’ before shrugging again and continuing to make pizzas, until somehow, through a series of unlikely technicalities, your doofus coworker ends up on the ballot for governor.

The contrast of their first meeting and how they simply get each other later… How quickly their acquaintance evolved into mutual understanding, respect and love is so special 🥹🥹🥹

Speaking of their first meeting, the way Stephan is described during it always makes me wonder if he wasn't intended to be a complex, likeable character when he first appeared. DG is known for retcon / giving 0 f*cks about consistency. So, throwing Stephan there to just have a Hanoverian connection to tie the main events of the book, then deciding he might be good for the plot later (hence extending his character) seems likely to me - yes, even if it is literally the beginning and end of the same book.