Ships & Fandoms Ahoy!

In this comic the memories were so repressed that Yashiki doesn't remember them even now, but he does have a subconscious reaction to embarrassing chuunibyou behavior as we see with his difficulty tolerating Haruaki Abe. I love their interactions in Shibito Magire so that is the primary inspo for this comic (ignore that I put Death Mark instead of Death Mark 2 in the first panel 😭)

-jax and caine are obviously foils; jax ultimately abstracts because she gave up on her own life’s worth (despite multiple instances of the others reaching out or trying to let her know they wanted her safe) while caine comes back (despite the fact that nobody wanted him back and despite thinking he was killed on purpose) because he never stopped being curious or hopeful. pomni and jax’s dynamic is a microcosm of the show’s main thematic conflict, about seeking connections in order to find meaning and the courage to live, and where pomni pushes that theme, jax opposes it. caine, meanwhile, is someone desperately seeking connections but unable to empathize or understand why he’s failing to make them

-there is potential chemistry in matching a character who is the most emotionally intelligent with a character who completely lacks emotional awareness but would, in the right conditions, want to try .

-tldr caine+pomni is the missing side of a thematic triangle where the other sides are pomni+jax (empathy versus nihilism) and jax + caine (maintaining isolation and rejecting connection versus desperately trying to escape isolation and seeking connection).

-caine and pomni don’t actually interact much during the course of the main story aside from his intro to the circus (but that’s surface level and pomnis too wrecked to engage) and the ads (not canon anyway). pomni occasionally shows signs of openness towards caine (note when she mentions enjoying the suggestion box adventures) but they never interact to the degree that jax and caine or zooble and caine do.

-arguably, pomni and caine’s first Real interaction is in episode 8, when pomni tears caine a new one, listing all his flaws out— and then caine later yells in her face the whole “WHY DO YOU PEOPLE TORMENT ME/I DIDN’T ASK TO BE CREATED/I JUST WANTED TO FULFILL MY PURPOSE” bit. so their first real interaction is an exchange where they’re both being purposefully venomous and hostile, but also more exposed (or vulnerable) than they’ve expressed before.

-AND THEN after that, caine dies, pomni has to deal with jaxs abstraction and rebuilding, and then caine returns much more humbled and willing to work together. it’s an odd transition where like… they can hang out now. caine’s Really Really trying to help and to prove he’s trustworthy, pomni’s trying to be openminded, they’re working with everyone to improve the circus, but also they have No Idea where they really stand with the other. Like to me any dynamic with pomni and caine is more fun post-finale because it’s interesting to imagine that like, only NOW after so much has happened can they even potentially start interacting with each other in a way that’s real and earnest

oh yeah and

-i keep thinking about how unfortunate it was in ep7 that the human that caine scripted to join him one-on-one as the “distraction” was jax, aka, the human least likely to do anything with the blatant signs that caine was desperate for ANY kind of validation or reciprocated friendship from the humans.