#also technically this falls under 'timeline workshopping' which i personally think is hilarious

[vinyls-and-valentines]

can you elaborate on jet and cherri's relationship? (if you want to ofc!)

Jet and Cola essay time! /hj

TL;DR: They started as sort-of-siblings, but then drifted apart as Cherri began dropping by the station less often and becoming more and more self-destructive, which in turn started to affect Jet and everyone else living at the station.

Okay, so when Dr. D took Jet in he was like. 10 years old and had spent the previous 2 years mostly on his own waiting for his parents to come pick him up because they’d promised to do so, which Jet made sure to make a point of whenever someone asked. Thing is, it had been 2 years since that promise and draculoid activity had pretty much spread throughout the Zones indiscriminately, so chances of Jet’s parents not being dusted was...well, let’s just say it didn’t look good. Now, D never had the heart to say that- the old man’s a little soft like that and that’s perhaps one of his biggest downfalls- but he was pretty sure that if he didn’t do something this tumbleweed kid would be dead or worse by 16, which he couldn’t let happen either.

So, fast forward a few week later and WKIL had 4 members: The Doctor, Show Pony, Cherri Cola and Jet Star. To say Jet was particularly happy with the change would outright be a lie, but it was better than sleeping outside and he got along with the others well enough. Show Pony was nice, which is what most people will tell you about them when they first meet them, but they also knew how to tell Jet “no” alongside reasons that made sense, so while it did often sabotage his plans he couldn’t be too mad about it. Cherri Cola, on the other hand, almost never told him “no” and that’s exactly how they became close. Cherri would just drive him to wherever he needed to be drove to or take him along whenever they went around the Zones checking in on outposts and they’d have fun talking or running away from dracs and Spiders because by nature Cherri Cola is a little bit of an asshole.

That’s not to say Cherri took him everywhere- they weren’t the epitome of responsibility, sure, but they liked keeping him away from things they deemed 14+, so stuff like smoking, bars and clubs were a big no-go- and every so often he’d be left at the station with D or go out to help Pony because as much fun it was to see D pull a face at his choice of music sometimes (read: Take On Me by a-ha, but 10 times in a row, Losing My Religion by R.E.M followed immediately by Battery by Metallica etc.) he always had more fun exploring the Zones. Plus, Cherri would always come back with some cool knick-knack or story (”i met the Phoenix Witch and she told me: <<Cola, murder is so summer of ‘94>>, and i said: <<Whatever old crow!>> Ha, get it?”), so Jet would come out with a net positive out of the situation, regardless.

As time went on, Cherri began to go out without Jet more and more, but because it was such an incremental change he didn’t quite notice it and especially not once him and Pony rescued Poison from death by big-ball-of-radiation-in-the-sky. Now, kid Poison was a little brat- would avoid everybody like the plague and get all snappy when pois sulking sessions were interrupted- and that got poi and Jet to arguing a stupid amount for the first few months they lived together because they just. Didn’t understand each other. Poison would always end up apologizing to Jet and Jet wouldn’t always quite forgive poi for what poi said, but he wouldn’t hold it against poi either. They just really clumsily started making friends, often accidentally overstepping boundaries, because they just didn’t really know how to make friends their age- then again there weren’t many kids their age in the Zones to begin with.

By the time things between the two settled, Cherri would be away more often than not, which Jet was slightly bitter about, but tried not to pay too much attention to because, well. Now he had Poison! D would let them go around to places like the market and Tommy’s by themselves and they took this opportunity, often ripping off cool looking posters and terrorizing the poor store-owner because they were little shitheads even back then. The pre-teens had their own adventures and now it was their turn to tell them to Cherri Cola whenever they’d drop by the station even though they’d rarely stay for longer than maybe a week or two.

Then Cherri Cola became an asshole to everyone. Jet never got the full story because Cola was just starting to make amends again with the Fabulous Killjoys maybe a year before they died and both parties were pretty busy people, but in that moment it seemed like someone had flipped a switch and they just became the biggest jerk in 6 Zones. They’d always show up to the station late at night and give a near heart attack to Dr. D and then laugh about it. When anybody tried to point out they were being a dick they’d get in arguments and Cherri would storm off to some part of the house in which the station was set up at the time and not be seen until the next day or the one after. They’d always make rude comments which especially didn’t sit well with Show Pony because they knew Poison took them to heart and they were beginning to wear on their own nerves as well.

In the end, Jet just stopped trusting them further than “we are on the same side, so you probably won’t stab me in the back if i look away for 5 minutes” and moved on with his life. A few months after officially deciding him and Cola couldn’t be any more different, the agent in question dropped Kobra and Ghoul on the station’s doorstep before fucking off to Destroya-knows-where and just two years later the four teens were all over the airwaves as “The Fabulous Killjoys”- delinquents set to get revenge against Better Living. Not much time for skeletons with that reputation, y’know?