#they didn't even talk after the crash and steel told ortega he was suspicious of ripley and ortega asked ripley like. Is that true??

[localcryptic]

Elaborate on Ripley/Chen NOOWWWWWWWW

ahaha what if you acted like you hated my guts for years and years all because you didn't trust me. and were jealous of how close i got to your best friend/crush. and then you accidentally doomed me to be tortured for five years when you found out i was an escaped lab experiment and assumed i was dead so you stopped looking for me. and i only found out all of this from you after i showed up back in your life (not dead! lol) and started hanging out with you and your dog as my one happy place. and also only after i started catching feelings for you (which is a crazy big issue seeing as i'm a supervillain and you're my enemy now). and we were both boys. like what would you even do

(incredible! this couple got divorced before they even started dating!)

the thing about steelstep with ripley and chen is that they ultimately like. have a really sweet relationship. i think there's a universe where they're better for each other in the long run. chen makes ripley feel validated and real and cared for in ways he never thought would be possible. when they can reach that point, they understand each other better than anybody else has been able to. but oh my fucking god. the many many many many MANY universes where they're the death of each other............. just so yummy

and then there's the issue of both of them still being hopelessly in love with ortega. nothing like bonding over your (supposedly) unrequited crushes on the same man. crushes that you've been hiding for like, a decade. this is like, repressed victorian levels of romantic suffering. and they both know how the other one feels about ortega. it kind of brought them closer together in a way. bonding over the oblivious idiot.