#drex stinklebaum

1) this kid is desperately lonely and starved for affection. that's the main thing tying him to drex for the majority of the AU. he initially goes along with the villain holding him hostage because he's getting a bit of attention in exchange for contributing to the scheme.

from there, with drex having the idea that the best way to spite captain man while ruining his life is to get his own sidekick who is Cooler and Better than kid danger or volt - bose knows he's pretty much just an accessory to make drex look better, to make him look equal to captain man in every way. he doesn't really care; drex is paying attention to him, and he's nice to him sometimes, and that's a good enough combination for him, for now.

2) drex does occasionally get reminded of buddy when interacting with bose. there are similarities there; sometimes he looks at his young sidekick, and he can see those similarities clearly. and he is perhaps having Thoughts about that. not many thoughts, but. definitely some thoughts. :)

3) bose is very aware of how much of a threat drex could be if he gets on his bad side. he's generally pretty optimistic about drex's treatment of him, but there's definitely a balancing act going on there.

brainstorm following drex around. brainstorm being the backup, the follow-through when someone starts escaping or when something drex wants is moving past their reach. brainstorm being a bit of the media appeal, the flashy sidekick to prove how successful and intimidating drex is.

and when drex is in a bad mood, when things aren't going well- bose retreats into the idea of being that helpful backup, staying slightly out of sight until he's needed.

because, even if four corners AU drex hasn't ever really hurt bose....he's come close to it. and bose, as canon consistently shows, has a pretty strong duck-and-cover instinct when he feels unsafe.

4) there was also this fun idea from my four corners AU notes :)

(the full idea was to give a different type of canine motif to each of the four corners kids- so here's the full idea as well. as a fun bonus <3)

5) oh, and a fun aspect of the four corners AU brainstorm & shoutout dynamic later on: they're both noticing the unhealthy aspects of the other's mentor-sidekick dynamic so much more clearly than they can see their own.

so there's somewhat of a simultaneous "do you think this is normal. why are you saying that like it's normal. that's kind of really bad actually-" and "oh no i'm doing perfectly fine. you, on the other hand- are you, like. okay? because That. is not normal. it's kind of really bad actually-"

and it's very specifically happening to both of them. on both sides of these interactions. they're kind of in slightly mirrored states of denial. <3

6) bose does start gradually becoming more and more disillusioned with drex, eventually; he was never exactly happy with the villainy thing, but he managed to shove that down - as long as he could still cling to the idea that drex cared about him to some degree.

as time goes on, though- as he starts connecting with the other kids in either identity, as he's experiencing a bit more of people genuinely caring about him- the harder it gets to convince himself that this really is the best option.

and that does reach a tipping point in the final main arc. <3

Bonus Screenshots