#poppy thinks he's better than funnel because funnel is a witch cookie and can never change that- unlike him who can change whenever he want

[yakketymax]

if they're from the right main 7, perhaps funnel and poppy? :eyes:

Imagine that I'm doing the evil laugh from Welcome To The Internet right here for me okay

Funnel and Poppy have the most changes in their relationship from my original plan when I was younger. Their personalities and stories were rewritten and fleshed out and as a result, so was their dynamic.

Poppy and Funnel do not like each other. They do not hate each other and are tolerant of each other in different ways, but they do not like each other. When Poppy returned to the circus- now the last performer to join it rather than the first -it was to see if Funnel was still The Ringmaster and prove that they could never be more than that (as some strange form of closure), that the carnie was just waiting to use and abuse the folks working here. Funnel, who just wasn't the person Poppy thought they were no matter how much he wanted them to be, offered up a job and a deal to Poppy- that deal being that Poppy could exploit their money and time for whatever he wanted, as compensation for what they put him through years ago. Both jumping at the chance for personal gain and wanting to see where this whole "I'm a changed person" shenanigan was going, Poppy accepted.

While Poppy keeps an eye on Funnel and is intrusive to their life on purpose, Funnel is relatively indifferent to Poppy's existence, but still finding him just a little more obnoxious than they remember. They honestly don't care a lot about what Poppy does with their money and time (with a couple of exceptions) and mostly carries on with their life without really talking to him unless it's necessary. They understand why he's upset and don't invalidate his feelings about what they put him through as The Ringmaster, but in doing so, Funnel never really thinks about Poppy's feelings. They just give him whatever he wants because they think that's what helps him and they don't like or care about him enough to want to talk about it. They don't use their money for much more than necessities and they're usually at home, so if he summons them up for something, they probably weren't doing anything anyway. They're almost avoidant of him beyond being his boss because they, despite wanting him to feel better, think he's annoying.

In present day, years after this deal has been set in place, Poppy no longer cares that much about what happened with him and The Ringmaster, he even straight up admits that it's not the worst thing that had ever happened to him while he was living on the streets. He admires Funnel now and thinks that their continued efforts and commitments to changing for the better for so many years are inspiring and, much like everyone that comes to this circus, has a rekindled love for performing because seeing how much Funnel loves it for real made him realize how fun it really can be. And you would think that, since Poppy has kind of let the situation go and has seen that Funnel really has changed for the better, he would cut the deal as well and just work at the circus like normal, right? Of course not! You think he'd let a gig like this get away? You're crazy. He doesn't have to keep this up but by god he's going to.

You see, Poppy refuses to outwardly acknowledge that Funnel has changed and continues to do so because, now, he's afraid of their new dynamic changing. He's afraid of having to admit that he's holding onto something he let of a long time ago for the sake of personal gain. He knows Funnel is changed. He knows Funnel isn't going to hurt anyone. He knows he doesn't care about their past anymore.

But he can't let Funnel know that. He can't lose this.

Despite having anything he wants, Poppy still wants everything he can get.