I’ve Just Thought Of A Concept That Is Either Genius Or Madness, I Haven’t Decided Yet. But What

i’ve just thought of a concept that is either genius or madness, i haven’t decided yet. but what if vanya and diego swapped their season 2 arcs?

so like, vanya touches down in 1963 and doesn’t forget everything that’s just happened, doesn’t forget that she’s just ended the world, and starts her sixties journey with a well deserved freak out. she ends up sobbing on the street about how she killed everyone, how she destroyed the moon- and promptly finds herself in a psychiatric clinic. which is where she finds lila. lila, who isn’t afraid of her. lila, who doesn’t make her feel like a freak because, lila is weird too. 

and when vanya uses her powers to save them from the swedes, lila still isn’t afraid of her. they run, and it’s wild and crazy in a way that vanya never thought her life would be-

up until lila betrays her.

and it’s even worse, because vanya had trusted her, had told her about how jenkins had used her, and lila’s done it all over again - but she doesn’t look happy, doesn’t look smug or vindicated, and vanya recognises the look on her face, because she knows what it’s like to hurt the people you care about. and if vanya could be forgiven, if she could still be loved, then maybe lila could be too.

meanwhile, diego drops down in the sixties, immediately runs out into the street without thinking, and gets acquainted with the bumper of sissy’s car. and the guy looks dangerous, with all his scars and knives, but sissy just hit him with her car. so she takes him home - and of course she can’t tell her husband, so she sets him up in the barn, thinking once he wakes up he’ll be on his way

except, diego wakes up without his memories beyond his name. and he doesn’t seem dangerous, not really, so she can’t just throw him out, can she? besides, carl is barely home these days, and she could use some help around the farm. she doesn’t really intend to let him around harlan, but it’s a small farm, and it’s not long until she ends up introducing them. diego doesn’t seem to know how to act around kids, because he freezes up, but as soon as it’s clear that harlan is non-verbal, he sort of just- clicks. he doesn’t try to get harlan to speak, not like carl does, just quietly plays with him without any expectations. and when he witnesses one of harlan’s meltdowns, he doesn’t seem alarmed by it. he just… understands. looking at his scars, sissy wonders if he had been prone to them, too.

one day, she sits down with him in the barn, when carl is asleep, and asks him how he’s so good with harlan, when his own father doesn’t want to be around him. diego goes distant, thoughtful. says he thinks he had a speech problem as a kid - a stammer, maybe. sissy goes hopeful, and says, you don’t stammer at all now. you got better. but diego doesn’t smile. he says, no, he doesn’t, but he doesn’t think that happened out of kindness. he might not remember who he was, but he still feels a rush of fear when words stick in his mouth. he tells her that he wishes he’d had someone to accept him as he was, rather than trying to change him. and suddenly it’s not so strange that he’s so good with harlan.

they talk. a lot. diego thinks that it might be unusual, for him, because it’s hard, but he trusts her. almost like a sister, he thinks. and he’s protective like a brother, too. so when sissy finally admits that she wants to be free of carl, free of the way he looks at harlan, free of the way he bullies her, diego is more than happy to have a… conversation, with carl. it turns out, he’s very good with knives.

anyway, not sure where i’m going with this, but it sure was a Thought