Kalvin Brnine's Polycule
| Meme | |
|---|---|
| Synonyms: | Brnine dating sim, Blue Channel polycule, Palisade polycule |
| Date Started: | around Sep/Oct 2023 |
| Related: | Balence, Gurbalence, Brnine/Gucci, Bresset |
| See Also: | Polyamory, Multishipping |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Kalvin Brnine's polycule is a meme in Friends at the Table fandom regarding the numerous NPCs (and occasional PCs) who conveyed romantic feelings for or otherwise had shippy tension with Kalvin Brnine over a short span of time. The canon events that ultimately pushed the theme of Brnine's polycule into meme status happened in the 29th episode of the show's PALISADE season, which aired on Oct 15, 2023, but fans on Tumblr had been making episode reaction posts that set the stage for the meme for several months by that point.
Evolution and Examples
Background: Jesset City
Brnine's player, Ali Acampora, first touched on the issue of Brnine's love interest(s) in a July 2023 episode of Gathering Information (a behind-the-scenes bonus podcast for Friends at the Table's Patreon supporters). In the episode, Ali disclosed that the relationship between Brnine (a ship captain) and Gucci Garantine (their commander) in PALISADE took her by surprise, because in the lead-up to the season, she had mistakenly assumed that Brnine's commander would be Jesset City, another returning NPC from the preceding season. Specifically, Ali lamented not having told GM Austin Walker soon enough that she had hoped to recreate the "Primary and Satellite" relationships with Brnine and Jesset. This is a reference to historical roles in the setting that appeared in a previous season, Twilight Mirage, in which the Primary and Satellite pair who appeared "onscreen" were the fan-favourite canon queer couple Demani Dusk and Gray Gloaming.
This information was not widely remarked upon by the fandom at the time, but set the stage for the meme's future development.
Gucci Garantine
On Aug 11, 2023, a PALISADE episode aired[1] in which Brnine and Gucci Garantine had a phone conversation with shippy overtones: Gucci expresses anger and concern about Brnine's willingness to recklessly throw themself at a dangerous mission, asks why they pretend to care about her, and perhaps most importantly, confesses to Brnine that she had imaged the two of them could work together on the planet Palisade as a Primary and Satellite.
Fans quickly picked up on this reference, produced fanart of the conversation, and made reaction posts. One popular post from this time that delved into the dynamic between Brnine and Gucci said:
[ahcoffebeans]
imagine if you were a mechanic and one day some no-name aristocrat is like "hey... i heard you're like... pretty tight-lipped, right?" and you're like "sure, I need money to pay for my space taxi off of this rock" so you do tune-ups for this aristocrat's kinda mid revolutionary group and you flirt with them a little so they'll ignore the fact you're charging them 300% up the ass until one day a space gas furry shows up at your door and changes your life, worldview, and relationship to politics and maybe you got a romance thing going on but you never clarify it and you wind up in a revolutionary cell with them and who is also here but your mid aristocrat but you're like "hey, just one more step on the road to getting out of here :/" and then the space gas furry buys you a spaceship so you can leave but you kinda wanna see where this space gas furry relationship goes until one day the space gas furry explodes themselves at a funeral to kill a CIA director and then its just you, your other buddies, and your mid aristocrat for five years until the mid aristocrat starts quoting some MCR lyrics at you over the phone while blushing like a closeted fifteen year old and you're like 30 now but it kinda hits anyway and then you decide that because of the space gas furry you're a better person and therefore have to overthrow the government and then the government threatens to blow up the sun and your mid aristocrat accuses you of wanting to blow yourself up to be a martyr and how romantic they thought it would be to live without the threat of an explosion tearing you apart and then you get onto a little bullet spaceship and one of several thousand space gods asks you straight up what you feel the most guilty about and you say "can't worry about that now, I have to stop this explosion" like you couldn't stop that explosion then so that maybe you can go back to that mid aristocrat and your name is Kalvin Brnine and you're canonically the most awkward person alive[2]
(The furry in question is Valence, who many fans shipped with Brnine and whose death in PARTIZAN had a life-changing effect on them.)
Gur Sevraq & The Figure
An episode that aired on Sep 1[3] involved an unexpected turn of events: the ghost of Gur Sevraq began to haunt another PALISADE PC, Figure. Gur was a character from PARTIZAN who many people shipped with Valence and some shipped in an OT3 with both Valence and Brnine (this ship was called Gurbalence). Gur's death in PARTIZAN deeply affected Valence and influenced the choices that led to Valence's own death. Fans began to speculate about how Brnine would feel when they learned about Gur's ghost haunting a member of their crew:
[ninthprime]
for the last week i have been unable to stop thinking about how ridiculous the introduction of ghost gur to the blue channel is going to be. i see no reason for figure to hide it especially after the crew has earned their trust so thoroughly? first of all figure is going to have to process the information that this is the gur sevraq that everyone else in millennium break knew before they were even the figure and that the fascist priest on the radio is a brainwashed zombie. then they’re probably going to tell the folks on chimera’s lantern first and the only person there who knew gur is thisbe, who frankly will not know what to do with this information. cori didn’t even meet this gur sevraq guy. you’re saying they used to not be evil?? and they’re a ghost now?? they ALSO need to explain that to hunting and saffron and routine. midnite only knows like 50% of this story and isn’t sure how much she should care (or if she should believe in ghosts but This Might As Well Happen). meanwhile brnine gets to learn this while freaking out about their dead first mate and considering they 100% associate gur with valence their reaction is going to be so so so normal. (i think this inevitably makes figure adjacent to gurbalence drama and figure i am so sorry.) do they think it’s worthwhile to tell anyone else in the cause?? do gucci and jesset get told?? they should probably call apparatus. and while all of this is happening i think gur is both very enthusiastic to be away from clem and also probably having some sort of existential crisis about seeing people they haven’t been able to interact with in five years. i hope he likes movie night
[ninthprime]
i’m seeing a number of comments focusing on the gurbalence part here so i do need to add what my ideal scenario here is: the moment gur isn’t there for any amount of downtime, figure (and potentially also noted romantic cori) goes straight to thisbe and says “i hate to ask you this but were gur and the captain both dating that valence person. please i have to know”
[wereshrew-admirer]
thinking about how that might happen and now i’m imagining that brnine’s first reaction to figure claiming to be haunted by gur sevraq might be “prove it”, and that gur sevraq could prove it by giving details of valence’s life?
and brnine would know right away that the figure is telling the truth because they presumably know very little if anything about valence…
but they couldn’t possibly be normal and ask to talk about valence directly, so they say “that doesn’t prove shit,” to bait gur into giving increasingly intimate details. and poor figure is stuck playing ouija board between his captain (probably visibly upset) and this ghost they just picked up - who is becoming distraught themself; almost certainly not having been able to talk about valence with anyone let alone properly grieve them….and the first chance they get is withbrounbrnine of all people, and how much do they know about why valence did what they did? do they feel responsible?
anyway that would be the fastest way to put figure in an incredibly, incomprehensibly, awkward situation that would get them asking questions, i think.[4]
Other posts around this time began to comment on the absurdity of trying to fit all of the Brnine love interests, now including Gur and Figure, into a single poly ship:
[beeelderly]
gurbalence
[ahcoffeebeans reblogged beeelderly]
gurbalance has fractured in the fiGure and brucci – possible re-alignment with Lattice into fiGurBruccitice?
[beeelderly reblogged ahcoffeebeans]
this hurts my brain legitimately. im being haunted
[ahcoffeebeans reblogged beeelderly]
another victim to the terrible plague known only as figurbruccitice
[fourteenfishteen reblogged ahcoffeebeans]
#i truly. ok so this isn't going to be a thing because *image of keith matrix-dodging under cupids arrow labeled 'shipping'* but #brnine fully in their feelings oh no another of my besties died. who shows up?? its Leap. hello look at my teeth mouth and tongue #I'm just saying. brneap. it's a potential in the abstract[5]
Polycule Chart
On Sep 17, 2023, ninthprime posted an early reference to Brnine's (and other PALISADE characters') situation as a polycule. They shared a polycule chart depicting their personal interpretations and headcanons for what was happening with the season's characters.[6] Notably, Brnine appears at the centre of a web of characters that take up most of the chart. Brnine's red "definitely romantic" lines point to Gucci, Valence (referred to as "Wolf who is not appearing in this season"), and Jesset, and their green "maybe??" lines point to Gur, Thisbe, and Lattice, a strange, ghostly character from the same mysterious culture as Valence. (When Brnine encountered Lattice earlier in the season, the first thing they noticed was that Lattice "smells like Valence"; their interest in Lattice remains tied to their memories of/feelings about Valence in this way.)
Some rebloggers made note how much of the chart came back to Brnine:
[madcap-nattery reblogged ninthprime]
#jdsgnksjdgn incredible #I really like how much space brnine occupies on this chart[7]
Others included additions or tags suggesting other romantic connections or elaborations, again primarily related to Brnine:
[ahcoffeebeans reblogged ninthprime]
there should be a platonic line that connects Phrygian and Brnine that says "first mates :)"
[boo-cool-robot reblogged ninthprime]
#lmao #I think brnine and Misericorde should have a green line #goth he/they injects you with goo asmr[10]
[fourteenfifteen reblogged ninthprime]
#i do think that brnine and jesset hooked up once and it was good but there was a tension and weirdness there that was not easily identifiab #le and neither one of them really wanted to dig into that so it just kinda petered out with neither one bringing it up but they do both #sometimes still pick at it in their brains. but like it’ll never happen again[11]
[zeiat]
ok i didn’t want to put all my Notes on that palisade polycule chart post that i reblogged last night because op doesn’t need all that but here are my thoughts courtesy of the conversation i had with sam @cossont about it [...]
- imo huge oversight to leave out cori’s obvious crush on brnine & brnine’s equally obvious 100% platonic “haha what a cute kid :)” feelings about cori
- SO true that jesset and brnine have a vibe. they’ve definitely at least made out bare minimum but only post-valence which, as sam put it, makes the chemistry/tension fun and flirty but also permanently haunted. i think they for sure hooked up after that scene where brnine went to visit jesset to console him about losing a bunch of his crew and then they got drunk together and the camera cut away. (sam: “30s hollywood coded evening”)
- i would argue for brnine/asepsis being romantic or at least maybe-romantic but it’s ok, not everyone shares my clarity of vision[12]
Around this time, some people also began to make posts about the dramatic possibilities of Brnine/Gucci/Jesset:
Kalvin Brnine Dating Sim
On October 15, 2023, PALISADE episode 29 aired.[14] It contained multiple romantically-charged interactions between Brnine and other characters, including Figure (who, watching tapes of Valence and Gur, wished so hard that Brnine were back home that they magically teleported them to safety); Jesset (who texted Brnine a string of "ambiguous"/flirty emojis); and Gucci (who visited Brnine's hospital bed, seemingly confessed her feelings for them, and told them they'd opened her eyes to the true possibilities of the revolution).
The fandom had a field day. A number of posts highlighted the implied choice Brnine will face between Jesset and Gucci as their love interests:
[shiv-roys-college-gf]
"I always believed in you 🫡🤕✨💕 "
vs
"I wanna tell you you're a stupid piece of shit but you did it. I was sure you died. I don't know what to do with the way I feel about you so instead I'm gonna ask you, what do we do next?"
what's a brnine to do
[shiv-roys-college-gf reblogged shiv-roys-college-gf]
oh also your dead ex's dead ex is living in your pal's head now and he told your pal to listen to the tapes they made together, and that's what inspired your pal to pluck you out of the fabric of the universe and bring you home, it's nbd[15]
[clementineskesh reblogged shiv-roys-college-gf]
#Brnine dating sim! We love to see it! Ali characters are back baby![16]
[ninthprime]
i apologize for making about my fifth post about the brnine love interest situation but it really is the funniest thing to me about this season and i can’t stop thinking about it. this episode we finally got brnine and gucci together, not talking over the phone, and seeming to finally be on the same page. brnine has motivated gucci to stay on with millennium break until the end just like valence did for them. gucci is so clearly deeply invested in this relationship. and YET as the scene starts austin specifically notes that jesset is sending brnine vaguely loving and romantic texts. that is love triangle encouragement!! that is encouraging gucci and jesset sitting at council meetings glaring at each other thinking about how they have to beat the other one to going on a date with brnine!! (meanwhile mustard is asking them how they are feeling about approving some sort of clandestine mission and neither of them are listening.) and the thing is. brnine is about to go on a mission where an affliction will likely show up. so of course they’re going to think about lattice. and they’re going to think “hmmm i could date one of the multiple living people who seem to be deeply in love with me. or i could pursue this digital ghost who smells like my dead bestie.” and this is kalvin brnine so i do not think they will make the most clear and healthy choice. oh and meanwhile brnine also just found out that their crewmate is being haunted by the ghost of said bestie’s other bestie who is probably going to have a lot of positive opinions about their recent actions (brnine killing dahlia and taking integrity is basically a more extreme version of how gur got future) and whose general presence is going to make brnine a little wacky thinking about valence even if most likely nothing romantic happens. and speaking of which gucci and jesset are also pretty much being haunted by valence considering their death is what lead to the two of them them founding the parties of the masque and wolf during partizan and this has an existing effect on their relationships with brnine. it’s cool how everyone here is being haunted by the legacy of the same furry and it’s effecting who can date the weird shithead who altered physics
[vforvalensa replied to ninthprime]
This is how the revolution wins. A militant movement precipitated entirely on a network of sparta style romantic warrior bonds, all leading back to the galaxy's most cringe fish[17]
In response to the above post by ninthprime, peacereturnedtothevalley reblogged with a screenshot of a Clickhole headline, which had been edited into a meme about the Brnine polycule. It read, "Be Prepared: Experts Warn That This Polyamorous Relationship Could Expand To Cover All Of Millennium Break By 1430 PM." The image accompanying the Clickhole article had also been edited to reference Brnine (a fish), Thisbe (a goat), Valence (a dog in a ghost costume), Jesset (a young man with brown skin), Gucci (a Black woman wearing red facepaint), Gur (a ghost spider), and Lattice (a ghost floating onstage in a theatre).[18]
Other references to the meme were more oblique. For example, mrmarielda's Brnine/Gucci fanart depicting a conversation between Brnine and Gucci in the episode was captioned with the "ambiguous" text Jesset sent to Brnine.[19]
Updated Relationship Chart
About six months later, after several further canon developments in Brnine's relationships with Jesset, Figure, and to a lesser extent Gucci, peacereturnedtothevalley unveiled their extensive and elaborate updated PALISADE relationship chart that included canon developments through episode 44.[20]
Like ninthprime's polycule chart, this relationship part extensively featured Brnine and their relationships, with more arrows pointing to and from Brnine than any other character on the chart. peacereturnedtothevalley highlighted this with cropped versions of the chart when it was in progress and noted that they had to increase the size of Brnine's rectangle to fit all of the relationship lines.[21] As peacereturnedtothevalley said in their post sharing the final chart:[20]
[peacereturnedtothevalley]
If a character or connection didn't make it it was because the task was becoming increasingly complicated and I was increasingly jokerfied. I think I lost track of a what a relationship chart was several days ago, starting with the brnucci and bresset ones set a bad precendent
The chart shows Brnine with pink "romantic connection" arrows pointing to Gucci, Jesset, and Valence, and different-coloured arrows connecting them to 14 other characters. As with ninthprime's polycule chart, several commenters and rebloggers commented on how central Brnine is to the chart:
[rabid-mr-blobby]
#this shits Incredible and really solidifies my feeling that Brnine is the main character of Palisade[23]
Others, as in the tag below, explicitly referred to the relationship chart as a polycule:
For their troubles, peacereturnedtothevalley even received a shoutout from the Friends at the Table cast, who called the chart "dizzyingly complex."[26]
References
- ^ Friends at the Table (Aug 11, 2023). "PALISADE 21: In Their Fear Pt. 2". Retrieved November 26, 2023. (archive link)
- ^ Post by ahcoffeebeans (Aug 21, 2023). Tumblr. Accessed Oct 25, 2023. (archive link)
- ^ Friends at the Table (Sep 1, 2023). "PALISADE 24: An Impossible Ideal Pt. 3". Retrieved November 26, 2023. (archive link)
- ^ Post by ninthprime with reblog by wereshrew-admirer (Sep 17, 2023). Tumblr. Accessed Oct 26, 2023. (archive link)
- ^ Post by beeelderly with reblogs by ahcoffeebeans and fourteenfishteen (Sep 17, 2023). Tumblr. Accessed Oct 31, 2023. (archive link)
- ^ Post by ninthprime (Sep 17, 2023). Tumblr. (archive link)
- ^ Post by ninthprime with tags by madcap-nattery (Sep 17, 2023). Tumblr. (archive link)
- ^ Post by ninthprime with tags by gig-kephart (Sep 17, 2023). Tumblr. (archive link)
- ^ Post by ninthprime with reblogs by ahcoffeebeans (Sep 17, 2023). Tumblr. (archive link)
- ^ Post by ninthprime with tags by boo-cool-robot (Sep 17, 2023). Tumblr. (archive link)
- ^ Post by ninthprime with tags by fourteenfifteen (Sep 17, 2023). Tumblr. (archive link)
- ^ Post by zeiat (Sep 18, 2023). Tumblr. Accessed Oct 31, 2023. (archive link)
- ^ Post by fourteenfifteen (Sep 25, 2023). Tumblr. Accessed Oct 31, 2023. (archive link)
- ^ Friends at the Table (Oct 15, 2023). "PALISADE 29: Honesty and Integrity Pt. 2". Retrieved November 26, 2023. (archive link)
- ^ Post by shiv-roys-college-gf (Oct 17, 2023). Tumblr. (archive link)
- ^ Post by shiv-roys-college-gf with tags by clementineskesh (Oct 19, 2023). Tumblr. (archive link)
- ^ Post by ninthprime (Oct 21, 2023). Tumblr. (archive link)
- ^ Post by ninthprime with reblogs by peacereturnedtothevalley (Oct 21, 2023). Tumblr. (archive link)
- ^ Post by mrmarielda (Oct 20, 2023). Tumblr. (archive link)
- ^ a b Post by 4ri4joie (a.k.a. peacereturnedtothevalley) (Apr 11, 2024). Cohost. (archive links: post, fullsize image)
- ^ Post and self-reblog by peacereturnedtothevalley (Apr 10, 2024). Tumblr. (archive links: post, first image, second image)
- ^ Comment by @mguzdial on Cohost post by @4ri4joie (Apr 11, 2024). (archive link)
- ^ Tags by @rabid-mr-blobby on Tumblr post by @peacereturnedtothevalley (Apr 16, 2024). (archive link)
- ^ Comment by @dancy-nrew on Tumblr post by @peacereturnedtothevalley (Apr 12, 2024). (archive link)
- ^ Tags by @arcanecandelabra on post by @peacereturnedtothevalley (Apr 11, 2024). (archive link)
- ^ The Chaos Garden: What's New @ the Table (Apr 16, 2024). Public post on the Friends at the Table Patreon page. (archive link)
