tl;cr meme

[marriagebroker]

post your character, people reply, give them the deets. you know how this goes.

Comments

[suibian]

so how bad is it gonna be

[phenomerom]

Does this one first while the mental image of highschool goth on goth beef is still fresh in my mind --

It's not even that Rom is a blind hater. On a rational level he does sort of understand that Wei Wuxian is coming from a place where ghosts and spirits seem to operate on a very different ruleset, so it's not like it would have been impossible for them to get along. But I think the specific way that the memshare from week two happened was just way too raw for Rom to let slide easily. Towako was someone he loved tremendously as his savior and role model, who died saving him, so he feels a lot of guilt and responsibility over her death, and it was only very recently in canon that he got any closure on that front. It's implied he spent a really long time looking for ways to avenge her, and it was only a huge stroke of luck that he managed to accomplish that goal, and he directly saw her spirit pass on peacefully. So seeing her seemingly dragged back to the mortal realm, and just for the sake of riling him up as part of a game show, really crossed a line for him. Not to mention Wei Wuxian never apologized for it!!! A single 'sorry' would have gone a long way in persuading him that Wei Wuxian simply hadn't seen how he Fucked Up, but the complete lack of apology even after he explained why he was pissed off made Rom believe that Wei Wuxian actually just Does Not Care. Despite his job as exorcist, Rom's actually pretty soft-hearted even towards ghosts, and is willing to communicate with them to try and pacify them without conflict when possible, so Wei Wuxian's attitude of seeming really casual about summoning spirits for the game also bugs him on principle, too.

I think if the problem was that conflict alone -- their drastically different attitudes towards ghosts -- then maybe something could have worked? But part of the problem was also that Rom fundamentally saw Wei Wuxian as an agent of the game's system, and Rom entered AYTO with the attitude of trying to game the system, not just wanting to participate and win organically.

As Rom mentioned to Wei Wuxian during one of the talking heads, he saw himself as playing a predictable and assigned role in a stereotypical reality TV setup. He was obviously one of the weirdo freak clowns brought on board to make other normal people look better, and sure, he could play along with that as long as he got his wish. So he saw a lot of Wei Wuxian's earlier needling and questioning as a waste of time at best, and an active obstacle at worst. He came in super guarded in the first place, determined to keep playing his usual sort of role detached from people, and then between Wei Wuxian pushing him to genuinely pursue Messmer, then taking it back and apologizing for the advice (when he still believed there was a chance he and Messmer might be a perfect match (calculated, cynical)), Rom couldn't quite tell what Wei Wuxian's angle was, which made him even more guarded.

I should also note here that Rom was also feeling pretty cornered by the end of week 2 due to the events of the match ceremony as well. Him and Odile had been eliminated as a match (what he'd considered his most likely backup option according to his cynical 'roles' mindset), and Messmer had seemingly chosen a match partner out of genuine emotion by choosing Verso instead of taking a calculated approach, thus making Rom question his own assumptions about a potential match with Messmer as well. That in conjunction with the ghosts thing just made for the most rancid vibes by their third talk ... sorry Wei Wuxian.

It's only at the very end that Rom finally gave up on playing his 'role' in the game due to good talks with CR and also Edamura sweetly choosing him, and once he could let go of that stubborn mindset, he finally came to be at peace with a lot of things, including Wei Wuxian's whole dealio. I think he understood on a rational level early on that Wei Wuxian was probably just, like, a hopeless romantic saying shit without actually knowing anything, but it was so frustrating for him early on that he couldn't help overthinking things and seeing ulterior motives where there weren't any. It's only once he let go of his guarded attitude that he could just, like, come to terms with Wei Wuxian being what he was?

I think by the time they're all departing from the game, Rom still doesn't like Wei Wuxian by any measure of the word. But he's also not gonna be sending the guy hate mail or whatever -- he's just accepted that they're fundamentally at odds in many ways, and it would be best if they have zero contact going forth. He doesn't even specifically wish Wei Wuxian ill any more, I think ... a small part of him does feel grateful to Wei Wuxian in retrospect for encouraging him to pursue genuine human connections, which it turns out is a thing that is actually possible for him, wow, genuine shocker! But on a petty level he doesn't want to admit he was wrong, and on a deeper level, he feels Wei Wuxian has wronged him too severely with the ghosts incident to have earned an apology or thanks. Also he's assuming Wei Wuxian does not like him either, so trying to make amends would be a waste of breath and all that. He has no qualms about Wei Wuxian being on good terms with everyone else, and hopes that he will continue to be kind to them, since they seem to mostly think positively about him? He just doesn't want anything more to do with the guy ... :')

[suibian]

CRYING THIS IS SO GOOD....... wei wuxian YOU SHOULD HAVE APOLOGIZED. it truly just didn't register to him as something he should do. incredible. if he knew that rom wanted an apology, he would have given it too.

oh well..... this is great. good luck, rom, you'll never have to speak to wei wuxian again.