part v. ears back

Please, Jack says to her, just get on this flight with me.

And Peggy can’t. He’s asking her, and she can’t – she doesn’t even feel bad about it, because she knows it’s the right decision. But there’s a part of her that’s more instinctive than anything else, tugging at her gut, pulling an answering howl at her throat, and it’s harder than she expects to refuse him.

He’ll show her a trumped-up file, his scent angry and miserable. JUNE 1944 – M. CARTER – a lot of redacted nonsense, and Peggy will tell him as much.

“You're willing to believe any phlegm Vernon coughs up because you're worried that I would betray your trust,” Peggy says. She stares at Jack, trying to will him to understand her. “I wouldn't.”

Jack looks at her, eyes wide, and there’s a moment – a moment where she thinks she’s done it, that she’s gotten through to him.

Then he says, “This is your choice, not mine.” He sounds like he’s choking on the words.

“Jack,” Peggy says, voice full of pity for her lost, foolish packmate, “You don't need to cut corners to get ahead. You're better than that.”

She leaves briskly, without looking back.

: :

“What's happened and what's true are two different things,” Vernon tells Jack, when Jack questions the validity of Carter’s file. “This is an official document. That means it's true, regardless of what happened.” He pauses, frowning at Jack. “Do I really need to be telling you this?”

Jack feels sick.

“No, sir,” he says. “I understand that.”

Some of these may be slightly dark

- Megan and Judy are sisters who are less than a year apart (age-wise) making Judy the youngest snooty. Megan (like Maggie from the Simpsons) proved from an extremely young age that she had a high IQ and liked to read and study but her parents were more interested in fashion to the point where they gave up on Megan and decided to have a second child who actually liked fashion and all that boring stuff. The rare times they buy something for Megan it's pink and white (Judy's favourite colours) and has something to do with fashion/makeup/spa etc, annoying Megan. In-universe, Judy is more popular than Megan, getting more love than her from everyone (not just their parents) and her lack of love and attention growing up has been the lead cause of Megan's extremely low self-esteem, even by normal (personality) villager standards (beaten only by Coco). Megan and Judy's parents are so upper-class that they call Megan's friends her 'slaves'. Megan is, unfortunately, the only one in the family (not extended tho) who realises slavery is wrong and values her friends for their company and what makes them unique rather than for people to carry her luggage. Judy is also the only villager who Megan is willing to fight without feeling bad immediately afterwards. Ursala is Megan and Judy's cousin who used to act like Judy and her parents but discovered the joy of actually having friends. Megan has a long list of rules given to her by her parents (e.g. no reading books after 6pm and lights out before 8pm) that Judy doesn't have to follow. In short, their parents are mean and unlikeable and Judy is just a discount version of them. Oh, also, Judy thinks she's a queen and doesn't believe in the Magna Carter

- Bug-Offs and Fishing Tourneys are global phenomena and Nat, Chip, Flick and C.J. aren't the only hosts as a bunch more chameleons host the Bug-Off and a bunch more beavers host the Fishing Tourney. This is also why K.K. Slider never visits on those days: because he's busy somewhere else celebrating and (as his concerts usually begin when these events finish) wouldn't be able to make it in time

- Bob is horny. All other lazies are too innocent to understand what horny means

- Sherb has the same interests as other lazies but with a bigger focus on sleeping and a smaller focus on food and bugs

- Audie and Dom have basically swapped half of their personalities

- The previous point but with Raymond and Cyd

- It is a well-known fact (in-universe) that if two (or more) big sisters fight the argument will likely cause pain (both physically and mentally) for everyone around them and themselves and may not end until one of them kills the other. This is mainly caused by one stating that they are the only one in a group comprised of at least two big sisters claims they are the only one qualified to lead the group. Big sisters are VERY competitive when it comes to leadership. If two big sisters are in a relationship together, it may end up being a competition to see who can top the other. Phoebe is the most top big sister

- Leif has a crush on Kicks

- Kicks is poor

- Violet and Harry grew up together and made the switch from peppy/jock to snooty/cranky at around the same time. They are also younger than most snooties/crankies, only older than Judy, Cyd, the snooty and cranky ACNH 2.0 newcomers and Francine (with those guys' ages probably in that order with Judy as the youngest)

- Fang is a lone wolf (pun not intended) but often ends up leading the crankies and snooties as he's one of the few that doesn't fight for the role. Freya is his second-in-command and she takes care of the snooties while he takes care of the crankies

- Reneigh, Azalea and Frett are watered-down versions of their respective personalities

- Phoebe, Julian and Drago grew up together

- Kid Cat, Agent S and Big Top also grew up together and then one day discovered Rocket's potential and let her join the group

- Roald and Puddles grew up together and even gave each other their photos from Wild World when Puddles left. They also briefly knew Coco but thought she was a regular gyroid. The only villager who ever payed any attention to Coco was Marina. This lack of attention (as well as her existence) caused Coco's extremely low self-esteem

- Ankha and Vic (possibly among others, I'd say the most likely candidates here are Coco and Lucky, maybe also Quetzal and Leigh but probably not actually idk) were cryogenically frozen by a time-traveling Redd in their respective periods of time (Ancient Egypt and the Viking era). Ankha was a Pharaoh at the time of her freezing and Vic was about to pillage the British

- The normal ACNH 2.0 newcomer has the highest self-esteem of any normal villager

- Petri created Cephalobot

- Quinn often has to give the rest of the ACNH 2.0 newcomers a ride

- Tom Nook has a harem with his coworker/employee Isabelle, his childhood friend Sable, his friend Blathers and his rival Redd

- Zell has a crush on Vic but Vic just finds Zell's flirting annoying. Zell also has a crush on Agnes and Shari and they used to have a crush on him but no longer care, instead they have a crush on Ankha (as well as each other)

- The only villagers who care more about Megan than Judy are Roald, Puddles, Al, Audie, Sherb and anyone else who's lived on the same island as Megan. Megan and Audie always take the same side in arguments (unless they started it but that's pretty rare) and Sherb prefers to take Megan's side as well

- As well as K.K. Slider, Agnes and Shari (and probs other big sisters) love Avril Lavigne, P!nk and a singer called Lights