#i am DELIGHTED someone gave me an opportunity to ramble on about my au btw

[fridjitzu]

Have you any hcs how BobbyRaz friendship could develop past Pn2? Because I would love to hear any you got.

Personally I like the idea of older Bobby getting into the intern program and just instinctively believing that Raz still holds grudges against him for his bullying at Camp whispering rock , which he since feels shitty for, and that Raz also feels superior towards him because he was the kid genius at camp and got into the Psychonauts so early.

Meanwhile Raz, who only two days after pn had way more serious shit to deal with than some bully at camp doesn't only not hold a grudge against him because of that but also is like " Yeah Bobby used to be a shithead and he still kind of is, but now he is the GOOD kind of shithead that's just snarky and affectionately insults you all the time. Dions like that too, that's normal guys bonding right? Me ragging back at him can in no way be read as not being meant in a friendly banter kind of way right?"

Just....VERY into the idea that Bobby still thinks that Raz hates him and feels conflicted and in the meantime Raz doesn't even realize that Bobby still thinks they HAVE beef.

In my au, in which Bobby ends up going to live at the motherlobe with Loboto, Raz ends up his "get this slacker up to a full intern grade" tutor after Norma's attempt at it ends poorly (Their personalities just fuckin clash too much for that dynamic; plus Norma made some snide comments about how Bobby should be sent to live with his mom instead (which isn't actually an option, and also all Bobby knows about her is that she was abusive*. She wouldn't have brought the mom into it if she'd known that was the case, she's just leery of the idea of the son of a notorious psychic criminal being allowed to wander HQ.)

Bobby goes into it expecting the whole thing to be actual torture - a former bullying target in a position of power over him who ALSO very much knows what his dad's like? Big Oof - but the most unpleasant it gets is that Raz asks him "So... are your teeth Like That because of your dad?", to which Bobby awkwardly has to reply that, uh, actually it's the other way around, his teeth made his dad even worse than he used to be. They talk a bit about loboto after that, and while Raz doesn't mention what he saw in Loboto's memory vault, he does bring up that it's pretty impressive how Bobby managed to clear up even a little of the hypnotic conditioning in Loboto's mind Gristol did (which Bobby doesn't see as a big deal, bc Loboto generally tends to cooperate with Bobby as much as he can when it comes to that sorta thing.)

After that, raz reveals that he's brought some required class reading - a stack of True Psychic Tales magazines, because a) that's how he got started learning stuff, and b) raz knows a fellow neurodivergent when he sees one, and figures that comics would be the easiest way for an ADHD-ass 12 year old who wrote "yeah right" under the Favorite Books section on campster to learn stuff. Bobby, not quite realising he's being tricked into learning, is more than okay with this.

The actual bro bonding occurs during the practical part of studying, though - Raz kinda leans into the rivalry thing a bit to make it more engaging, and the fact raz isn't pulling the "hey I'm your teacher you aren't allowed to snark at me" card definitely helps.

I'm sure the whole "so why are you not holding a grudge against me" thing comes up, and Raz's response is basically just "you failed at bullying me for two days and then I got my dream job, why don't YOU have a grudge tbh"

And Bobby is like "Ffs Goggletron, you got that compass back onto my dad's brain ship, I've been looking for that thing basically ever since I worked out how to get in there, and I don't think you even realise how much of a big deal that is. I've been waiting for you to rub it in for days and you just... haven't? Idk how to even react to that, what happened to thinking you're better than me" (Bobby, I think that's just you projecting your insecurities lol)

There's sort of a thing going on where the two of them have been under a lot of personal stress in the past week (Raz with the Maligula thing, Bobby with loboto pulling the whole world domination plot with Oleander AND the whole thing with Truman the moment bobby went away to camp where he couldn't watch out for him), and it's just nice for both of them at this point to be able to have some low-stakes snarky rival banter and do psychic powers practice out in the quarry (as well as Climbing To Ridiculous Places practice. Bobby isn't a trained acrobat but he's quite good at parkouring about like a flailing raccoon or squirrel) after all that mess. I think that's pretty instrumental in how quickly they actually end up as friends in the au.

(Also, Bobby fuckin hates Dion when they first encounter each other, because Bobby is like "he's being unfairly mean to raz and it reminds me of when I was unfairly mean to raz and I DON'T LIKE IT". It's a miracle they didn't get into a fistfight in the parking lot of the Lumberstack Diner right then and there.)

*although that's just what Loboto told him. The truth is, she didn't... actually exist? But idk how much I wanna spoil wrt that in this particular answer. :P