#thought too hard abt Wei Chen and now I have to go lie down

[silvery-bluish]

Aurrie got me thinking abt Sidestep Chen Friendship and specifically Ars and Chen Friendship again and I am In It about them tonight. Because he knows they’re Anathema literally from the start of Retribution - they get over 40 clue during the Carter Mansion Thing and it only gets worse as the rest of Retri wears on - and he. Doesn’t say anything about it to them. They want to hang out with his dog (and him) after Therapy Stress. He gives them a shelf. (I’m a regular criminal - You don’t have to be) He wingmans for Daniel??? Despite knowing they’re the villain calling themself Anathema, despite knowing what happened at the gala???? There's a bit of a warning in there, yeah, but it's still the inciting factor in the (maybe?) date.

If they’re puppetstuck (they can’t be now, puppet comfort too low even if they punch their own mirror I think) Chen goes to keep an eye on them at the hospital, so he presumably always goes to keep an eye on them at the hospital. So they don't disappear again. If I run them down the guilty ending, he’ll rescue them from Rangers HQ. He doesn’t even show up to talk to them at HQ, since they already did the photo talk and the other possible Chen talk point (after the Argent confrontation) is a Daniel talk because of how the priority order works out, so he never tells them they’re under arrest— just shows up going “I thought about what you said and you might unfortunately be right” like he heard Ortega say they were Anathema and immediately started planning how to break them out. (Less supported by the code but-- like he knew this was going to happen at some point.)

He doesn't snitch on them when I run them their main canon, the innocent ending, not that they know he knows. Arsinoe still thinks he'll be the one to arrest them, in the end. I don't think they're right.

Idk. I’m just. Feeling emotions about them being friends, somehow, now? He almost died because he was looking for them, lost his arm because he was looking for them— even if he didn’t succeed, it matters that he tried, that he cared to try. Chen keeping secrets (for them?) They weren’t expecting his,, solidity or loyalty or sense of duty to be for them. It's unexpected, and it Really Fuckin Matters to Arsinoe.