#crew dynamics

I couldn't tell if this meant to be about the ROs themselves or the entire crew so I'll answer both.

With the ROs/LIs, Asher and Daaz are of course best friends. Raif and Yren are closer friends and Yren and Daaz are closer to each other.

Raif and Noel are late night talking buddies sometimes. And Kav and Noel ended up forging a fairly close friendship after Kav's arrival. Noel is well aware that Kav has a lot of secrets - it worries him sometimes but he never presses for them because they have known each other less than two years at this point and he figures Kav will share it at some point if he's comfortable with it. But sometimes at night he does wonder if or when Kav will find him trustworthy enough to open up. The wall there is sometimes REALLY obvious and when it's super apparent the distance Kav hold everyone out, it bothers him a little.

Raif and Asher bicker but they still care about each other in that sibling sort of way. Same for Raif and Kav. Raif and Kav have a slightly more tense relationship because Raif knows Kav is lying his ass off about a lot and it bugs him. He can't sense anything from Kav but he's really good at reading people's demeanor as well and he can just tell that Kav's lies aren't malicious. There's just too much there - years and years of stuff Kav doesn't want to talk about. It puts him on edge because he keeps waiting for the shoe to drop and the lid to get blown off whatever Kav is hiding.

Aside from that there isn't any particular drama amongst the main cast. Everyone actually has a pretty chill personality so there isn't much room for not getting along.

The side characters we see are the ones that are closest to the main cast.

Gates is obviously very close to Noel and they've known each other since his "stupid and reckless" days.

Cim and Raif are friends. She doesn't appear as much as Gates but they actually get along really well and he hangs out with her and Kaeto after hours sometimes. Cim is a little high strung and can get him on edge sometimes with the sheer force of her emotions but Kaeto is generally really chill so it balances out.

Lerin and Fraise are friends with everyone but not super close. Originally Fraise had the role of Gates but Gates ended up being a bit more fun to write so I pushed him into more of a spotlight. Where Lerin ended up being the mature parent of the group. So the two of them ended having a slightly different dynamic with everyone than originally intended. Lerin and Kav...clash. Not in an unfriendly way but he absolutely drives them nuts. Which is on purpose. Which they know. Which...does not prevent it from working.

Fraise and Asher clash some but usually in a very bicker-y sort of wait. Asher really likes to tease Fraise and sometimes Fraise gets revenge in ways that genuinely get on Asher's nerves because Fraise sees him as "a kid" which Asher hates. But they generally get along.

Kaeto, again, is also meant to be friends with everyone but just doesn't show up as much because there's just not really room for those interactions.

I guess the point is that the visible named characters are all meant to be a part of the main friend group even if we only see some of them then during the big, chaotic group scenes.

Yet another normal day in Kirkwall

Zoro did an okay job stitching himself up! I imagine that of everyone in the crew so far, he’s the best at doing basic first aid and such due to how much he tends to hurt himself. In this pre-doctor era of the Straw Hats, a lot of the little bits of health care had to be picked up by the others! Here’s what I think:

Nami knows the most about disease in general. That’s why everyone says she’s the only one who knows about medicine. Remember she was the one who gave that lecture on scurvy, plus she was on her own among fishmen for a long while. Fishmen and humans probably have a lot of ailments in common, but for skin care stuff at least humans have to have a whole different routine. It’s safe to say Nami had to learn a lot of that stuff on the road. If you have a joint issue or need to know what’s wrong with you, ask Nami.

Usopp is the most orphan of the crew, so he knows a ton of folk remedies from the folks in Syrup Village. He has stated he’s never been sick, and if he wasn’t lying, it’s probably because he knows how to keep up a good workout routine and daily health. He’s a good runner and surprisingly good at a lot of little things, so I expect he is the best at personal maintenance. I expect that he has a lot of weird misinformation-type cures for stuff like the hiccups or a fever where Nami has to let him know it’s actually bullshit. If you want to get in shape in general, ask Usopp.

Sanji is pretty self-explanatory. Nutrition was the stated goal for getting a chef and that’s what he’s good at. He somehow was just fine after starving to death as a child, so he is probably good at knowing what’s what to nurse someone back to death, especially food-wise. If you want to go on a diet to recover from something or improve yourself, ask Sanji.

Zoro, as I said, is great at little patch-ups. He’s used to handling his own wounds, but he’s probably fixed up Johnny and Yosaku enough that he can bandage up an ouchie on weaker folks with only a “why are you crying, i’m only sewing a finger back on” level of pain. His fixes don’t always work but they are solidly good enough. Of course, he is also the workout bro of the crew. If you want to get fucking CUT and don’t mind some pain in the process, ask Zoro.

As a broad trend rather than a set in stone rule, I like to think of the Engine and their main Crew as having a Freudian Trio dynamic. (Freud sucks ass though)

So, often the dynamic plays out a bit like this -

Driver - Superego - Has to pay attention to Engine's running and anything else that may be on the line. The one pulling levers, checking gauges and calling the shots. Often more serious and potentially stern in temperament. Functionally the Head (with Brain) of the Engine.

Fireman - Id - Literally associated with Fire(!), which is the closest analogue to an Engine's heart, and thus the Emotional, primal side of them. The Firemen have a hard, physical job and some'a the engines are much more finicky in the steaming. Also it seems the Firemen in the series are the ones who burst into song!

Engine - Ego - While they do have their own personalities, they still need the presence of their crew to reach their full potential. It seems fair to assume their traits are partially picked up from the people who climb inside and get them moving for years on end.

That's a semi basic version, but again I want to reiterate that it's a rough rule of thumb and if everyone wrote these exact dynamics without variation I'd actually hate it lmao. Shake it up! Make the Fireman the sensible one and the Driver the enabler, have them get along or constantly sniping with the Engine trying to mediate! These dynamics still have a lot of wriggle room, and to copy and paste many different sets for several different Engines is to do a disservice to how zany and varied the canon characters are...!

Why is Amos standing there of all places?! When he got up....he choose to stand by Holden?!