#continuing the trend of novel length replies. is anyone even reading these

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

1 and 6 for Palina and Ingo?

(character dynamics ask game)

OOOOH these two are a really good duo. underutilized tbqh a LOT of fun potential btwn them

1. what were A’s first impressions of B? were they mostly correct or have they changed?

this is a toughie bc like most of these involving ingo it requires deciding things abt the time and circumstances of his initial intro to the pearl clan that i still don't have a going hc for that isn't just for one or two fic plots. but like, all those possibilities are so INTERESTING. was it before or after lord arcanine's death? the palina irida leader competition? how quickly did sneasler decide he was Hers and start acting accordingly? did they meet soon after he arrived or was it delayed a bit bc palina was living in the coastlands at the time? and all of those questions i think have a major impact on the start of their relationship and the way they would view each other initially.

i think most likely is that palina's kind of always accompanied by her two growlithe, so she probably would have seen him interact with them and that forms a large part of her initial opinion on him (he has a very good intuitive grasp of their body language/comfort zones and is overall good w/ them and also is very patient with the little lord being very shy, which is probably partially due to the fact that he might not know he's a lord, but palina still appreciates seeing it), but then she would probably also know he was Some Guy From Nowhere and i... am honestly not sure what she would think about that. like, i don't think she's as immediately hostile towards him as like, gaeric or calaba, but i think she's also a kind of cautious person by nature and they know literally Nothing about him, that makes her a little suspicious. but then sneasler likes him? and sneasler doesn't like Anybody. so she's like... wary, probably keeping him at arm's length like the majority of people, but willing to give him a chance. yanno

otoh ingo's initial opinion of her probably majorly depends on the circumstances and in particular what he knows about her going in. like, does he know she's a warden. does he know what a warden is. does he know anything about lord arcanine. not that ingo is particularly likely to be judgy or anything but the amount of background context he has impacts his thoughts bc palina is a person deeply defined by her circumstances. if she weren't traumatized and dealing with all of the things she's dealing with in canon i think she'd probably act very differently, especially to strangers. so ingo will have a different view on her if he thinks "this warden is just kind of quiet and depressed i guess" vs "you're probably quiet and depressed because your lord died and your whole clan hates you for it." yanno.

6. what does A think B thinks of them? or, if asked to describe their relationship, how would they do it? are they right?

HMMM well. the one thing abt these two that i come back to a lot is that i think ingo for sure agrees with palina about not pushing growlithe into lordship too fast, and i also don't think his own internal morals would let him sit and listen to anyone shit talking her for that choice. especially once he knows the story and has met the warden and growlithe in question, he kind of can't not defend her. this is sort of stupid considering his own position in the clan is so precarious and he probably should be keeping his mouth shut but that thought does not make it through processing in time to stop him.

idk if palina has ever like, been present for any of these arguments, but she would probably know about it secondhand at least. and it's definitely not something she gets a lot of from her own clan—even irida often sounds more like she's just being patient with her than anything—so it's... yknow. it's nice to have one other person on her side at least. so basically i think palina knows ingo thinks she's not just like, someone who's allowed to grieve, but that she's a good warden who is making the actively correct choice, and he feels strongly enough about that to actively speak up about it.

unfortunately i'm not sure if palina knows how to fully express her feelings abt this, especially if it's true that she views herself as someone dangerous to associate with and tends to push people away bc of it. and as mentioned before, common sense dictates ingo should be keeping his head down and not making waves etc. and i think that might kind of frustrate palina, that he won't just do the smart thing and let her be a pariah. the fact that he's kind and she likes him paradoxically means she has this instinctive desire to put distance between them so she doesn't hurt him by proximity.

and like, would palina tell him this?? is she even conscious enough that she's doing this mental math to be able to put words to it?? she's conscious and intentional about distancing herself from iscan in public, but i think iscan being diamond also might make it a little bit easier to rationalize. warden or no, the diamond clan can't hurt her as badly as her own clan can. so ingo's concept of her opinion on him is entirely reliant on whether he's aware she acts weird to the pearl clan specifically because she's afraid of being burned or hurting others, or not, in which case he would have no fucking idea why she seems to change her demeanor on a dime. at least she doesn't stop growlithe from coming to bug him for attention at warden meetings, so she must not be that hostile towards him. this is his only clue.