#does every version of patroclus like margaritas?

[baejax-the-great]

Hey hey 😊

I just read your answer to the anon Pat drink question and I just came up with another question myself, so I hope you don’t mind. And I really hope it’s understandable what I mean…😅

When you write different stories, do you see characters, like Achilles and Patroclus, differently or is it a more or less constant characterisation? Like, of course it has to fit the plot and everything, but like the drink question, would you always say ‚Pat would choose this one‘ because that’s his character and his taste? And he acts like he does because that’s his character?

Maybe like… are there different Patrocluses for you or is it just one (in this case very awesome one 😍).

I don’t know how to describe it better in English, I hope it was somehow understandable 😅 I just love your stories (told you once or twice I think 😂🥹) and your characterisation of them feels very personal and real, so I wondered.

Have a great day!

What a fun question!

I think part of the fun of AUs is seeing how your fave would act in various situations, but another fun part is seeing how the situations influence your fave.

So, that said, I do think ATG Patroclus and Sunset Pat are different people (as well as my third, unpublished Patroclus that most likely won't see the light of day--he might be my snarkiest Pat yet). If someone suggested to Sunset Pat that with enough training he could medal in the Olympics, he would think they were insane. He is both more cynical than ATG Pat and more lighthearted in a lot of ways. And ATG Patroclus, having never experienced a Chicago winter much less almost 20 of them, is frankly soft. I have to imagine surviving enough Chicago Februarys would have given him a "who the fuck cares" attitude regarding some of the bullshit he dealt with.

If I were a better writer who had not started writing Sunset as a joke about Achilles mistaking Chicago for hell before turning it into an angst-fest, I probably would have spent more time thinking about what a Patroclus growing up without Achilles would be like as a person. I sort of cheated here because Chicago Pat got adopted by Ajax at around the age he would have met Achilles in canon, so he still got the influence of a very confident and loving friend during a particularly vulnerable part of his life. Without Ajax dragging him out of his shell, I think Pat would be a much quieter, shyer, and more bitter person.

Sunset Pat has recently and reluctantly spent some time thinking about who he would have been in different life--whether his understanding of himself and his own morality are as set in stone as he thought (hoped) they were. Iliad Patroclus is threatening enough to his own sense of self that he's gone ahead and rejected him outright as anything to do with him.

Anyway, would ATG Pat choose a different drink than Sunset Pat sitting in a Chicago pizza joint? Absolutely. Honestly I see him pairing his pizza with white wine, hah. And Iliad Patroclus, after trying Achilles' mojito and deeming it too sweet and trying Sunset Pat's IPA and deeming it disgusting, would probably enjoy a margarita. In fact, they all would. They should have just gotten a pitcher.