also, if lister has trauma from be preyed on by adults in the industry in this universe, would the girls have any clue about that? since in the book we know he told rowan, but all we know about his reaction was that he reacted similarly to jimmy? or would they have no clue because he has no reason to bring something like that up because its an opposite gender friendship and it wouldnt be just talking to the bros then?
GOOD QUESTION I havent thought about this one too much but. hmm.
I think rowan is def still aware but its more of an ongoing conversation because they room together and are just generally closer than they were in iwbft (i mentioned this before but lister has less of a reason to assume rowan will always take Jimmy's side if the jimmy protection squad is spread between rowan & fereshteh and also theres like 3 other members in the group and its not as "duo in a trio"-y and thus their relationship is just less strained) so rowan wasnt aware of all the relationships as they happened but lister would occasionally talk to him more than iwbft, often while drunk and/or severely sleep deprived + overcaffinated
also like iwbft, jimmy has no idea anything is really happening. hes really head-down-focused-on-his-own-paper about archangel because theres so much going on in his head, so even tho he has the same emotional closeness with the archangel 6 as the rest of them do with each other, he tends to be more clueless about these things because he doesnt always have the mental energy to dissect things beyond face value, and its not like lister would ever tell jimmy, his some years long crush, unprompted lol
i think fereshteh definitely does suspect that he has some sort of trauma with people in the music industry, just based off the way hes protective of her in the industry setting because he sees himself in her n all that. like after he interjects in Every conversation with Every producer or technician or stylist and tries to subtly get her out (which to fereshteh is of course the most obvious thing ever and shes surprised no one seems to notice), plus her just noticing lister and his weird interactions with different people over the years, she eventually puts two and two together and comes out with 4, even if she doesnt know the Details or if its even every person she suspects
Bliss also suspects, but she doesnt think too much about it. to her she just assumes its relationships that he regretted later, and she doesnt get the scope of the timeline so it doesnt even occur to her that he was a minor. she does kinda sympathize with him even if she secretly wonders why he would do all that to himself, but that last bit is honestly more of a symptom of her general exasperation with listers continued insistence to self sabotage via playing the airheaded idiot than any real annoyance at what she sees as just some bad dates
juliet is aware mostly thru bliss that something is up but she just doesnt know What, and is similarly kinda willing to let it lie if lister will. in this au I just feel like shes so busy trying to conflict manage the laimondi fallout that anything that isnt an immediate concern is just left to rot on the backburner. she notices occasionally that hes uncomfortable around performance staff n such and she does like make sure he isnt being harassed but shes kinda harried chasing after bliss and rowan so she knows and lister knows and she knows that lister knows that only half of her attention is with him, and she does feel kinda bad but what can she do?
soooo even tho ig lister only ever talks about his experiences w rowan, its not necessarily a bros thing as much as it is circumstance. rowan has 4 things going for him and its that hes 1.) physically close to lister All The Time 2.) made friends with lister during development 3.) is the least likely to freak out about it, and tangentially related, 4.) is the one most likely to reinforce listers inferiority complex (not maliciously, but he does have this bad habit of thinking lister needs a wakeup call bc hes so constantly unserious). but if on the off chance lister was rooming with juliet (wouldn't happen because that would leave bliss & rowan together, and Cecily kept them apart because they started dating before debut and she did nawt want a pregnancy to deal with even if they promised to be safe) or with bliss (also wouldn't happen because rowans inferiority complex to lister , aka the aforementioned nonchalance olympics pissing contest, (i know i know this post is already long enough but it ties together in a way i cant really reword rn) would rear its ugly head and make the laimondi conflict even worse) but anyways what im trying to say is he probably would have told them too. def not jimmy and probably not fereshteh tho, but those two were always gonna room together. like I cant imagine them not being roommates its not possible.
ANYWAYS sorry all of these are like a billion words I have very many archangel thoughts even if im bad at explaining them succinctly lol. Hopefully it all makes sense??
