what made you ship Bella Squared?
The short answer? I read @cycwrites Nowish and thought "yup, this ship is going to be with me for the rest of my life".
The long answer?
I am a fan of equilibrium in relationships. I like the moment when my brain goes "Oh, of course these idiots are it for each other". Sometimes that's two people, three people or in this case four.
Now I admit that a lot of this is based on headcanons because the movies give us painfully little for Stacie outside a few clues (namely graduating with honors, some background interactions with Beca, the moment where she tells Aubrey to wait during the first riff off and Aubrey does). And Aubrey, Chloe and Beca were all written with giant parts of themselves missing.
But, the thought that two people who are fundamentally lonely and a little broken (Beca and Aubrey) find happiness with two people who are both a little broken but who have a bit more ability to express their own joy (Chloe and Stacie), is really pleasing to me.
Beca doesn't have to pick a best friend or kind of mentor or the girl with the bluest eyes she has ever seen. She can have them all. And they can all love her in different ways and be loved back in different ways in kind.
Aubrey gets the best friend who she has loved for years and the pain in the ass musical genius and the hot nerd who makes sex jokes that make her blush but kind of grin too.
Chloe gets the best friend who knows who she is behind the smile and the girl who has music in her veins and someone she can be silly with and dance her ass off with.
Stacie gets the task master captain who helps focus her, and the best friend who she can have a dirty mind with and the dancing captain who she can just laugh with.
They can each have it all.
Would it work in real life?
I don't care. It works in fiction for me and I think that's pretty great.