Hi! I'm doing well, thank you, and I'm sorry about the late response. This ship started because of tacenda, so I'll start with that AU. Honestly, this all started by accident. I was talking with a friend about the stretch of time when Faker was MIA and about how Bengi and Deft had likely bonded over their shared pain and grief and when Faker reappeared...I'm not particularly a fan of love triangles and am a specific type of multishipper so I think I just jumped to a group dynamic from there hah. From tacenda, since that fic's relationships are walking on a very strange line between romantic and platonic, I shifted to other AUs where it then became polyamory. Anyway, about the ships and dynamics themselves:

Faker/Deft is a little strange to me because I think this ship works only in very specific circumstances. The way I view them is like putting two flamethrowers against each other. They're both strong-willed and, in their younger and more argumentative years, would inevitably butt heads as well as burn down a building if put in a room together. Bengi in comparison is a very chill person and can take the role of mediator/voice of reason/singular braincell if he tries. Adding him in creates a middle ground.

As for Bengi/Faker, I think it's very easy for Faker to completely overpower Bengi in the relationship (in a "there is one person here with strong opinions and so that person wins" kind of way) if he isn't careful, especially if we're talking about early Bengi/Faker. Adding Deft to the dynamic gives Faker someone that'll stand up to him casually. Bengi strikes me as the kind of person who's good at settling fights from the outside, but not defending himself if he's in one.

Finally, Bengi/Deft...it's the awkward third side. I honestly don't think they've interacted more than like three times IRL and they don't have the same storyline Faker/Deft do. Because of this, they’re the most AU dynamic (ranking is Bengi/Faker < Faker/Deft < Bengi/Deft), but thinking about AUs is fun, no? Anyway, it tends to be, in my mind at least, the kind of thing where it's "we loved the same person and found ourselves in the same shadow" (I should probably preface this all with the fact that I tend to think of this ship getting together in the earlier years since older Faker/Deft is an entirely different dynamic than younger Faker/Deft). Younger Faker feels kind of like a bulldozer and I think Bengi is very much in danger of getting run over. In comparison, Deft feels...gentler? Kinder? At the very least, he knows how it feels to be left behind and overshadowed. Rather convenient coincidence that the person overshadowing Bengi and Deft is the same person.

This pairing still isn't perfect though, so I think it ends up coming off as Bengi/Faker but slightly to the left. It's a bit calmer, maybe, but knowing a younger Faker, I don't think he's willing to give up Bengi like that and Bengi definitely isn't willing to leave Faker, so he gets pulled in. Or it's the other way around, because it's undeniable that Faker has gravity. There's also the issue of (younger) Deft being far more willing to leave compared to Faker and having a far more fragile mental. This is maybe around half a joke, but I'm fairly certain that in situations where Bengi can't do anything to drag Deft out of a mental boom, Faker could annoy him out by inflicting such visceral feelings of spite that Deft keeps on playing.

The three of them together is like...hm. I suppose it's like a scale. The two arms and the two weights kept in balance atop a lever. Remove one element and it unbalances. Faker/Deft match each other in a way Bengi, with his personality, really can't, and Bengi himself keeps the two of them from imploding or exploding. The older version of this ship is a lot less volatile, with Faker/Deft being more stable and being more emotionally mature and with Bengi being more willing to stand up for himself. The older version is harder to get together though, if they aren't already, partially because by then, Deft has stabilized enough that he doesn't quite fit into the dynamic as easily compared to his younger self. Think of it as metal in a blacksmith’s forge. Easier to hammer together while hot then cooled, no?

Sorry about the long response anon, and I think I deviated a bit (or a lot), but I hope I answered your question at least somewhat! This ship got revived (kind of?) around two and a half months ago through tacenda, and likely qualifies as a crack ship, but it's a very interesting dynamic that I'm always glad to talk about. Kind of funny how this ship started because of Faker's role in tacenda, but arguably, the most important element to them working out in AUs (in the way I think of them at least), is Deft. Thank you for the ask and I hope you have a good day!