#hersh goes to try and keep randall out of trouble. he has no real belief that they'll find anything *but* trouble down there

[tea-of-destiny]

feeling very normal about randall in the professor claire universe

[tea-of-destiny]

and just so the og tags are available on the same post

#like. randall being best friends with both hershel and claire in stansbury #hersh and randy get along because they're opposite complements. partners in crime. #but randy and claire get along because they're so damn similar at their core. intellectual rivals even.

#randall goes to akbadain because he wants to prove himself with the fame and fortune of unlocking its secrets #hersh goes to try and keep randall out of trouble. he has no real belief that they'll find anything *but* trouble down there #claire goes because deep down she also wants to be at the forefront of a historically important discovery #she's sure that randall is onto something with the mask of chaos. and some part of her can't let randall best her at this.

#when randall falls into the ruins it should naturally be claire's hand that he slips out of in this au #but hershel's the one who has to keep claire from falling off the ledge after randall so he can't save randall either #the guilt from the incident drives claire and hersh out of stansbury together. and as you know they grow much closer in the years after #and ofc later on hershel also dies because of claire's research on the time machine. another discovery gone fatally wrong

#so. claire was randall's friend and rival. claire left him to die in the ruins. claire and hershel stole credit for discovering akbadain #and ran off to college together to become famous and knowledgeable without him. #and then claire left hershel to die too. all for her own gain. the esteemed professor layton--built on the backs and blood of her friends

#what i'm saying is when descole makes randall into the mg he ensures randall feels the most betrayed by claire. not henry or angela #like ofc randy's jealous that henry and angela claimed 'his' fortune and moved on without him #but destroying monte d'or is about getting revenge on claire for being so selfish and reckless with other people's lives

#if you want to get real jiggy with it. obv randy's original motive for proving himself in akbadain was to earn angela's hand in marriage #but maybe after the fall he forgot who he was trying to impress. maybe when descole shows up spinning a tale about betrayal-- #randall begins to believe the one he loved is claire. the person (he thinks) he wanted to prove himself to is the one who let him down most #<- we're going full soap opera with this au akjlsdfhlaksdfjlks

#and claire is pretty confident that randall is misremembering this too. but not 100% confident. and it throws her off her game. #because maybe he has a point right? all she does is hurt people who love her. maybe she deserves to be the villain in his eyes. #whether she stops him from destroying monte d'or or not she proves him right in some sense

#in sum uh. i like when the ranclaire dynamic is angsty and fucked up

feeling very normal about randall in the professor claire universe