the general concept (04 as a mobster/21 as his moll) spawned after promotions for exist concluded; my friend quipped that 04 looked like a (possessive :p) mobster in the photo shoot behind when he was taking pics next to 21 (when he did the thing where he subtly pulled 21 closer 😮) and my mind spiralled from there... i wrote up the beginning around the end of august iirc with many of the big plot developments already set out and tended to it once in a while--i drew up a lot of the au too before opening up the word processor... it wasn't until sunbolt was announced that i decided to dig my heels in and finish it

all in me (abbrev. as AIM from now on) is otherwise something i call in jest my graduate thesis on 0421. an amalgamation of the meta i've fostered on their dynamic through the years. i used the contrivances of the genre (i consider aim an annoyingly self-conscious melodrama; there's some mystery too ig) and its accompanying narrative, the respective career-swaps, as a thinly veiled (and done with love) critique on them as people by themselves, and as people together... and then as artists too.