#botb hari

Picture 1: Jetty goes to Arlanta with Ijekiel after a fatal tragedy

One of the biggest departures from canon i made in this AU, it for sure doesn’t make sense since Roger and Rosalia want to keep Jetty a secret but please hear me out. A big part in the childhood arc in this AU is the relationship between r!Jetty, Kiel, and Duchess Alpheus and the Duchess becoming a true mother figure to r!Jetty. Due to r!Jetty’s growing prowess and yearning for freedom from Rosalia and Roger’s control, the Duchess writes a letter order recommendation to the Arlanta Academy or what’s-the-academy-called so r!Jetty can have a better education in an environment that can provide just that. This is huge because this provides an avenue for r!Jetty to make connections not just for herself, but also for Athanasia who she’s trying to save; connections with foreign powers is just the right thing for a true heir what can i say.

Unfortunately once Rosalia catches wind of this she’s pissed that her first love great friend went behind her back for the sake of r!Jetty. So she does the sensible thing and sends assassins posing as old enemies of the Alpheus’ to kill Duchess Alpheus while she’s unguarded. This also just so happen to be at a time where she’s with r!Jetty and Kiel, and well, you can guess what happens there… Now r!Jetty blames herself for being the reason this all happened in the first place (adult foresight) while Ijekiel blames himself for not being strong enough to defend his mother when she most needed it (toxic masculinity ruins kids again). An assassination, however, does not stop the school bells from signaling “it’s time for the semester to start!” So much to their distraught and dismay, Roger and Rosalia ship Jennette off with Ijekiel to Arlanta for study.

For the actual drawing itself, i note the fact that Jennette doesn’t have the Arlantan school uniform just yet because she only got accepted recently. This is in contrast to Ijekiel who’s been groomed since he was young to be the most talented ducal heir (and husband to an empress), so his enrollment has been kinda predestined. I imagine r!Jetty arriving in Arlanta still in mourning clothes while Kiel is already dressed up for school.

Picture 2: Figuring out how i want to draw Harley Ernst from BOTB/Harley Takes The House (yes i’m using the tapas translation of her name)

“Rosie why are you trying to draw a protagonist from a story you don’t even like—?” The above and also Arlanta is where BOTB takes place in so Harley has skyrocketed into becoming a key character in this AU. I was trying to do a mix of her manhwa design and her novel design by Spoon, but i think in the end it leaned more to her novel design. Harley may not have stood out to me as a protagonist, but there’s a lot of traits of hers that can be amplified for this AU. She’s the bullied adopted daughter of a grieving duke and duchess who only project their dead daughter onto her, for crying out loud that is Penelope Eckhart’s life story but in a far less brutal fashion!! There could be a growing resentment to her predicament while have complicated feelings toward the situation her adoptive brothers are put through (which tbf is there already but not very present to me). She can somewhat identify with her parentified oldest brother with having to mediate her relationships with others as someone with power at all. IDK IDK i think BOTB did have some promising qualities that just. Weren’t explored enough. And i’ll use this to segway to explaining the last two pictures:

Pictures 3 & 4: Jennette Margarita x Harley Ernst propaganda

PLEASSSEEE HERE ME OUT WHEN I SAY THESE TWO WORDS: LucAthy. Parallels.

…Okay this needs more convincing. Why do i ship these two in this AU other than the fact that i’m a himejoshi?

Let’s start with the fact that the two are both adults in the bodies of powerless children (LucAthy Parallel 1). Harley wasn’t able to save her parents from dying like in her past life, and is constantly abused by her power-hungry aunt who sees her as a pebble in House Ernsts shoe. You know who else has rocky relationship with the adults in her life and wasn’t able to save a parental figure too? r!Jetty!! And because of their traumas the two start off with a rocky relationship abhorring constantly running into each other, but by some twists of fate realize the other is like the other which kickstarts a friendship in their growing years (LucAthy parallel 2). And this allows the two to start expressing themselves in a way they can’t do so when they’re around other people in their circle, Jetty doesn’t have to pretend to be a perfect lady and Harley the sweet girl everyone sees. They can be rude and loud and laugh with each other all they want and it’s a freeing experience. It’s a special bond only they alone can possess, and just maybe, it can grow in something more… (LucAthy parallel 3)

This is where the paths start to diverge but i want to speak on how ship works it’s own anyways so please stay with me. Jennette’s earnestness and bluntness can perfectly contrast Harley’s inner sarcasm. In the context of this AU, r!Jetty is also fiercely protective of her loved ones especially after what happened to the Duchess, and the same goes for Harley too. The two can either even bond over their love of bows (since it does show up a bit with Harley), or Harley may not be the biggest fan of bows but still loves dressing up with r!Jetty and Louise Bastille (Harley’s friend). Jennette loves creating dolls of her favorite people in canon and would make a ton for Harley, at first as a joke when they’re enemies but then becomes a tradition between the two. And i didn’t realize this at first but it’s also a subversion of the female rival trope! They start out seeing themselves as threats in school but instead find camaraderie and respect, and that grows into a friendship that grows into a mutual crush on each other.