#also apologies anonymous for hte lateness of this response -- i got this ask while playing with friends

[bathroomtomb]

I really really really really like (hate) your idea that randice and wavey are marvin and rainer respectively i like it a lot but in a bad way because rainer is trapping himself with that responsibility cause he thinks he's the only one that can do it and I just nnnnnnnnn m I like it

im glad it resonates with you as well!! i think it's pretty clear to me that rainer isn't exactly stoked about his apparent "partnership" with marvin, and the pet text for those two is in a really unique position when it comes to that relationship -- if you want to consider wavey and randice analogs for those characters respectively, and i do because i feel like there's sufficient evidence, it becomes kind of the only time you get to see rainer talk in third person, like, directly, about making the game for marvin+his feelings about it. all the rest of the time their relationship gets discussed, it's either in passing (mention of starting the game for him in 96) or in the form of rainer talking directly to marvin (a large majority of the "narration" in petscop is specifically targeted at marvin, see the notes in care and linas rooms respectively, door riddle, petscop 20) so the description is really unique!

you can glean pretty easily from petscop 20 that at least in 1997, rainer definitely kind of fucking hates the guy (spends most of his dialogue actively taunting and antagonizing/accusing him in a variety of ways) , but the wording of the pet descriptions is kind of the only place there's any firsthand indication as to why he's continually corresponding with him regardless of the like. pretty clear malice going on there.

you could kind of figure that rainer wants something out of marvin without this, but i consider the randice pet desc. supplemental evidence to that end and i find it really important because of that! and i also agree that i think the specific mechanics involved in catching those pets seems to be an expression of rainer feeling trapped/tethered somehow to marvin, or somehow responsible for keeping him in check. its a really interesting and subtle way of expressing that about a character relationship without ever having to show it more directly. (and yes its very painful. really scary+ painful stuff going on between those two characters, my takeaway has always been that whatever the circumstances were in which they started working together, their 'partnership' made both of them significantly worse people+pushed at least rainer much further down in an ideological sinkhole that he may have been able to escape from had he not had his maladaptive belief system encouraged...but then again, he was pretty committed, so who knows when he reached his point-of-no-return 'state change' as he might percieve it lol)

thanks for your kindness! ☆