#i think it actually counts as a tragedy
i’m thinking again about that post-empires concept where lizzie and jimmy both forget who they are thanks to their curse but end up in the same harbor town, and lizzie ends up picking up jimmy to help her run her scam tourist shop, and they get into shenanigans. and jimmy’s like “my boss is insane” and lizzie is taking advantage of jimmy’s very bully-able face and honestly, they could have ditched each other a while ago but they’re having fun so they stick together.
meanwhile, joel - or, well, one of the joels, he’s finally figured out though that ‘being a hivemind’ isn’t a normal state of being - has found them as a trader from the last standing city on the continent empires stands on, a mezalean trader bringing things that no one else can get anymore. and he… knows who they are. but he also can’t just tell lizzie and jimmy because, one, he tried that and they both panicked and then, worse, forgot again, and two, it feels probably kinda rude to tell someone that he’s their husband when she wouldn’t know that? so he’s just in heartache, which is a horrible state of being for a joel to be in. he’s not made to experience emotions like heartache. loss isn’t a thing mezaleans normally like, deal with, what with the hivemind retaining the memories, but - there they are, and he can’t tell them who he is, and here he is, hurting like, a lot. but he won’t just leave them, either, so he becomes their reluctant third member that helps them get out of problems and brings them things and ends up surprisingly often the voice of reason if only because he can’t lose them again, even if he doesn’t quite have them anymore.
anyway so lizzie finds a book about an ancient cursed ocean treasure and gets it in her head that she and jimmy should go hunt for it. and joel is like. okay. their curse is making them forget everything i try to tell them about who they should be and it’s tearing me apart. but if i like. trick them into breaking it themselves… curse can’t undo that, right?
and so an adventure begins and i don’t know if they succeed or if they’re just doomed from the start but end up forming a family almost in the shape its meant to be again or what, and i don’t have the time/energy to write this, but… i think about this au a lot, with lizzie and her underling jimmy and then joel, their friend (and unbeknownst to them, their link to a past life they’ve lost).
i mostly also just think about empires!joel and the seablings a lot to be honest,
