#halibel

This is going to be headcanon format instead of scenario, but yep, Luppi can absolutely be included! >:D

. . .

Starrk

He's perfectly content being subordinate to someone stronger. Existing as the weaker one, for once, is almost peaceful. He's not the best about actually getting up and following orders, but the lack of any rebellious or power-hungry tendencies makes up for those faults. So long as Lilynette can stay by his side (which is all but guaranteed, with a matched set like them), this role is bearable.

Halibel

So long as Apacci, Mila Rose, and Sung-Sun are under your protection as well, she can swallow her pride and accept a superior. For the most part, as a Fraccion, Halibel stays out of the way. She does what she's told and tries to make herself useful, but doesn't seek recognition or praise. She just wants to fill this role properly, and not have to deal with unnecessary complications.

Ulquiorra

He's the picture of silent, apathetic obedience; following orders quickly, efficiently, and without complaint. However... that dead-eyed glare certainly doesn't seem fond of you. Internally, Ulquiorra is willing to accept a superior when one is assigned to him, but he finds the whole farce of authority just as ridiculous as most of Aizen's commands. He'll comply, but he resents every second of it.

Nnoitra

Nnoitra might very well be the worst Fraccion possible. Having someone stronger bossing him around hits his fragile, volatile ego like nothing else— and as you'd expect, he responds to that perceived slight with violence. Constant threats against his superior's life quickly become routine; you can either accept this, or put him down in battle and wipe your hands of the mess.

Grimmjow

Horrendous. He's a slight step up from Nnoitra in that he's capable of some pro-social behavior, but Grimmjow vehemently despises being anyone's subordinate— and he makes his feelings on the matter frequently and violently known. Much like how he rebells against Aizen's authority, whoever he's Fraccion to gets a nasty attitude and creative interpretations of orders, at best.

Szayel

On the surface, he's an enthusiastically loyal subordinate who goes above and beyond to be helpful to you! ...too far, sometimes, especially when his excuses for the latest self-directed incident don't quite hide his scheming. Szayel, of course, is plotting against you all the while; either to take you down and rise in the ranks, or to exploit your power for his own benefit.

Aaroniero

He's another out-of-the-way sort of subordinate who would just as soon never have to interact with you for more than a few moments at a time, if he can help it. At the same time that Aaroniero is wary of someone so much stronger than him, he can't help but envy your position of authority— emotions that make it safer for him to keep his distance and plan ahead for every encounter.

Luppi

ANY excuse to draw my queen Harribel......

Julius is obvious, everyone knows at this point that his entire duel was him trying his best to prevent Subaru from getting dragged out and slaughtered in the street. But like, Anastasia did not have to go THAT FAR out of her way to try and teach Subaru a lesson. Girl literally set up the most obviously identifiable trap in the world with all of the tells perfectly aligning with the flaws she believed she saw in his character, told him to his face where he screwed up and what he needed to work on in order to not screw up next time, and then made a show of walking out as a group with all of her mercenaries just to point out the very obvious signs that the flaws she had just pointed out had prevented him from noticing. And also — someone else pointed it out, but it’s arguably implied that she only decided to do that after hearing that Subaru had picked a fight with Crusch Karsten like THREE DAYS after Julius had apparently completely failed to teach him that very necessary lesson about MINDING YOUR TONGUE. Which is just — she heard about that and went “Od Laguna that boy is legitimately going to get himself murdered ten times over if I don’t do anything to stop him isn’t he” didn’t she?

But it’s not just them because Ricardo was ALSO fucking in on it. We don’t see him until the final loop, but when we do he seeks Subaru out almost immediately and starts subtly gauging him out, seeing how he reacts to him mentioning Julius and the Royal Selection Ceremony and the White Whale and everything, clearly weighing his conclusions about Subaru’s reactions to all of that to the story he obviously heard from either Julius or Anastasia after the Incident at the ceremony. He even starts giving Subaru bits of advice because it becomes clear that Subaru is SO fucking stupid. Like, Subaru asks him what is. Probably a really racist question about whether he feels weird about riding a Liger — being a demihuman and all — and Ricardo makes a show of being very casual as he answers it by saying that “ah, well, this is an animal and I’m not, so there’s that” before moving on to basically say “word of advice: never ask anyone that again” and he does it nonchalantly enough to not make a big deal about it while also getting across that what Subaru just said could very easily be taken as an insult worth fighting over. And then he goes out of his way to save Subaru from the Whale at one point, getting his mount sliced in half and himself very seriously injured in the process.

And then to top it all off, the minute Julius sees Subaru again he gives him such an obvious test that Mimi almost ruins it by calling him out on it, in a way that very much mirrors the test Anastasia gave him in that failed loop, goading Subaru into a negotiation about Why the Anastasia Camp should continue to help them fight the Witch Cult without telling him that they were already planning on doing exactly that anyway. He even ends by nodding and saying that he’ll give Subaru’s efforts a “passing grade.”

Like, the Crusch Camp was helping Subaru a bit more explicitly — healing his gate and all — but that was very much a transactional exchange, with Crusch even explicitly stating that she will only ever help Subaru with his endeavors if there is something in it for her and her Camp. Meanwhile, for someone known as the Merchant Princess, Anastasia and her companions were being way more altruistic in their attempts to actually do Subaru some good. Aside from Rem, the Anastasia Camp may genuinely have been Subaru’s closest ally within that entire Arc, from start to end.